Best Friend In The Apocalypse
by TheSirenMonster
Summary: After a retreat from a group of hunters, Ellie and Joel take refuge in an empty cave, that was once the exploration site of Desmond Miles' last revolution. Exploring further on her own, Ellie finds a torn-down Animus, and decides to take a rest on it. What she didn't realize was that the Animus was still active. Last Of Us and Assassin's Creed 3 crossover, Connor and Ellie.
1. Fade Away

**[Fade Away]**

Throes of gunshots and men yelling echoed out into the hollowed jungle of a crumbling forest region, as the heavy footsteps of Joel and Ellie darted straight through the said street. Outnumbered by a group of angered hunters on their tail, Joel and Ellie had to make the hard decision of making a quick retreat from the gun-show and flee for a hideout.

Bullets cut through the heavy air, passing overhead of Ellie and Joel. With his revolver, Joel turned to fire rounds at the charging hunters and keep running, to try slowing them down. He hit one hunter in the knee with a bullet, and the next one sliced over another scuffed hunter's cheek. As the hunters began to slow down, but keeping up their profanity, Ellie and Joel took an immediate turn down another dirt path, finding that it was leading down a distant of a cityscape.

"That'll take too long..." Joel panted out to himself, instantly thinking up another plan. "Here! Behind the brush!" He and Ellie ran towards a large, untrimmed form of green and brown brush on the sidelines of the path. Both quickly jumped over the brush together, only to be met by a steep hill under their feet. Both slipped from standing, and they went tumbling down the grassy hill.

Both rolled down another ten seconds, before crashing right into a rocky mountain wall.

"Shit!" Ellie swore out, feeling her shoulder collide with the mountain wall hard. "So much for a plan B." She chuckled out, holding her shoulder.

"Shh." Joel immediately hissed out, hearing the heavy rumbles of the hunters above coming towards the path they disappeared off of.

"Fuckers are fast!" One man shouted.

"Just keep going! They're probably heading for that city ahead!" Another man ordered out, as the others heeded his demand. All of the hunters followed suit down the trail towards the cityscape, completely oblivious to the idea of Ellie and Joel hiding down below the hill behind the brush.

"Whew." Joel breathed out in relief. "They're gone."

"Yeah." Ellie nodded her head, pulling herself up to a kneeling position next to Joel. "You okay?"

Joel nodded his head. "We've got find some shelter for now. We're losing daylight." Joel reminded Ellie, indicating on the crashing sunset beyond the trees. As Joel pulled himself up to stand, Ellie also stood up straight. "There should be somewhere for us to hide until morning."

Both the comrades went walking down the unknown path they crashed on, keeping close to the mountain wall. They walked for another five minutes close to the rocky structure of the mountain wall, until they could feel the chilly breeze of a cave entrance nearby. Caves were always a terrible sign of something dangerous lurking within, but Joel and Ellie weren't scared of what could be waiting beyond the echoes of darkness.

The cave entrance was large, and leaking drops of water from the recent rain they experienced. Joel and Ellie turned on both their flashlights and started off into the cold cave.

"Yoohoo!" Ellie couldn't help but shout out inside the cave, hearing her voice stream across the watery walls. "Anymore hunters in here that want to be pummeled?" She threw out with a bark of laughter following that.

"Shush, girl." Joel playfully pushed her by the back of her shoulder. "We just have to be quiet until dawn."

The two silently walked through the cave together, trying to find the best area to stop at. They continued walking further and further down into the closed-in cavern of blackness, until they found something far more interesting up ahead of where they were.

Before them, they found a larger, more wide cavern before them. The rocky ceiling was amply higher than anything else they've seen in other caves they had explored, and only a sharp beam of moonlight from a crack in the cavern ceiling poured into the darkness. The light was shone down onto a flat surface of the cavern, exposing the dirtied ruins of what seemed to have been an exploration site.

"Whoa!" Ellie jogged ahead of Joel towards the forgotten clamor of folding tables, rolling chairs, and electronica devices smashed and torn apart. "This looks like that one exploration site I was reading about a while ago." Ellie said in awe, looking over the rusted devices and crumbled tables. "Did you know the world was going to be in shambles because of one guy?"

"When did you read about that sort of thing?" Joel asked, walking up to the site. "Are you pulling my leg?"

"No!" Ellie insisted. "About twenty years ago, a guy named Desmond Miles was suppose to be a key-source to finding an Apple of Eden to the universe, and save it. Don't know what happened after that, but, I think he died..." She shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know what happened to the world after that. Maybe it's the reason for the infected going on?" She joked lightly, chuckling.

"Don't matter anymore." Joel shrugged one shoulder. "We can use this site as a resting spot." He went over to a rolling chair and dusted off the seat. After that, he collapsed down onto the chair and kicked his feet up on a folding table's surface. He exhaled heavily. "Tired."

"Yeah." Ellie smiled slightly. "I'm going to look around a little more."

"Just be careful where you go." Joel reminded her, as Ellie started off further into the site.

"I will!" Ellie waved over to him.

Ellie passed a large boulder that blocked her path further into the site, easily climbing over it, using it's bulky structure as help to climb upon. Over the other side, Ellie's eyes caught a sight of something remarkably notable.

On the other side, she saw what looked like a large lounging chair, attached to old cable wires and a large head set on the head of the chair. Ellie remembered it from a historic novel she read a while back. The chair was the exact image of what appeared to be an Animus. Something Desmond Miles used to see into his ancestor's lives, and how to follow their footsteps into finding out darker secrets they have tried to bury ions ago.

"Maybe it's not the real thing..." Ellie told herself, trying not to feel so excited over what looked like an Animus replica. She jumped down from the boulder top and casually strolled towards the long chair. She saw how the red cushions built into the chair seemed old from age, but comfortable to the eye.

Out of her weary state of running around all day, she climbed into the chair and laid back, sighing out quietly as she closed her eyes. She wrapped her arms over her stomach and crossed her legs together to feel comfortable. Her head rested on the bent headset of the lounging chair softly. Immediately she felt her back start to ease out, and her body start to become heavy for slumber.

As she started to fade into sleep, she could lastly hear a faint sound of something speaking quietly.

"Subject confirmed. Prepared for transmission..."

**The first chapter, and the fresh start, of a collaboration of a young survivor and a native assassin.**

**Why am I writing this? When I played as Ellie on _The Last of Us_, she reminded me so much of a young Connor in the Winter time. I kept thinking she and Connor should collab and become an awesome duo of assassins. She's excellent with stealth and silent kills with a blade, and she's a fucking awesome professional with a rifle and with archery. Ellie, find the Assassin's Creed and join! KYAAAAAAH~.**

**More to come, in the next chapter, when Ellie wakes in her own Wonderland of a whole new wooorrrrllllld.**


	2. Meeting Connor

**[Awaken, Awaken]**

"Hey! You! Up there!" An unfamiliar voice screamed at Ellie from a distance. "What're you doing up there?! Get down, now!"

As she fluttered open her eyes, Ellie's vision was met by the blinding light of what appeared to be a morning sun rising. She hovered her hand over her eyes to shadow them from the rays as she opened them wider. When they were fully opened, she made a grumble from being woken.

"Connor, I think she's deaf. Climb up there and get her down." It sounded like an elderly man's voice speaking to another.

Ellie's ears perked up to the sound of the unfamiliar and she was ready to jump off of what she laid upon. Until she realized...

She was laying upon a tree branch. "Holy fucking shit!" She screamed loudly, immediately reacting by hugging the tree trunk behind her back with her small arms. She shut her eyes tightly and pressed the side of her face against the thick tree trunk, praying not to fall down. She was sitting five-feet high, in a tall and towering tree of an unknown area. "Where the fuck am I?!" She shouted, ready to start panicking more.

"How did you get here?" A voice right on the other side of the tree trunk asked Ellie. "Are you mad? Taking a nap in a tree this high?" The voice sounded older, low, but somehow mellow in every sense of words. "Can you hear?"

"I can fucking hear you!" Ellie screamed back at the unknown man speaking to her. "I don't know how the fuck I got here! I don't know what the fuck is up with this shit! Just get me down, now!" She screamed bloody murder, still not opening her tightly closed eyes.

"You speak like a sailor... Are you a sailor's daughter?" The voice asked, as the sound of climbing rounded the tree trunk, onto Ellie's side.

"No!" She screamed the answer, most likely piercing the man's ears.

"I can help you down. Here," She felt the man grab at her left arm to try prying out off the tree trunk. "You'll need to let me carry you down."

"F-Fine." Ellie didn't like the idea to immediately put her trust in a stranger she had no clue about, but, she was too frightened of heights to care at the moment. She opened her eyes slightly as she released her arms from the tree trunk and immediately wrapped them around the man's shoulders. She felt one arm loop around her lower-back and lift her body up to his chest. "Don't look down, Ellie. Don't look down." She told herself as the man started to climb downward.

As the man was gracefully climbing down the tree, from tree branch to tree branch, he spoke to her more. "Your name is Ellie? An odd name..." He said in his mellowed voice, still holding onto her closely as he carefully made his way down the towering tree. "You still have not answered the question as to how you managed yourself up that tree."

"Just get me the hell down this fucking tree." Ellie exhaled fearfully.

"Very well." The man simply said.

Once Ellie and the man were down, he put her down to her feet. She looked up at the man now. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was Native American. He was ridiculously tall, enough to cast a shadow over her smaller frame. He had traditionally long and braided hair, tied back into one ponytail. His face had a distinctive structure, and his eyes were large, with bright brown eyes shining.

He was also wearing an odd sort of outfit. It was entirely white, with some stripes of blue along the designs. He had heavy grieves on his forearms, and was armed with a full-quiver and a bow rounded over his shoulder. Underneath his large collar of the outfit, she could see an old, traditional necklace of wolves' teeth around his neck. Everything about him screamed Native American.

"Thanks..." Ellie sighed out in relief of being down from the tree. "I thought I was going to fall."

"How did you get here?" The man pressed on for an answer.

Ellie became immediately irritated with his persistence. "Hold your damn horses, man. I need to regroup my fucking thoughts for a second here..."

"Is this the rapscallion that was slumbering upon the tree branches?" Another voice joined the conversation. Ellie saw that it was an elder African American man, who was walking slowly to the two with a wooden cane occupied under his left hand, helping him hold his body up. "I don't know how you got here, youngster, but you've made quite the climb up that tree to take a nap. Odd place to rest, I'd say."

"... What..." Ellie couldn't understand. She rubbed her eyes in irritation. "What the fuck is going on here?" She asked herself. "How the fuck did I get..."

Until she finally came to a realization. The Animus.

"Oh, fuck." Ellie whispered rashly to herself. "The fucking thing did this." Then, she looked up to the Native man and the African American man. "What year is this?" She asked both of them in a hurried voice. "Huh? What is it?"

"It's..." The Native man calculated the date in his head, with a thoughtful shift of his eyes. "... 1773."

Ellie's stomach dropped hard. "... Oh, no..." She quietly said to herself. "How far did this machine take me?"

* * *

**[Meeting The Folks]**

"In my tribe's tongue, my real name is _Ratonhnhaké:ton_." The Native man introduced himself to Ellie, once the three were settled inside of the homestead.

Ellie made a blank look on her face, staring at the Native man with bewildered eyes. She lightly shook her head, with a smile forming on her face. "I can't say that name, even with a clear head." She laughed out loud shortly, before quieting down. "But, that's pretty cool that you've got such a unique name, man." She nodded to him, seeing him also smile back. "Any chance of having a nickname to remember you by?"

"Connor Kenway." The African man, whose name was Achilles, answered for him. "Don't worry, child. _I_ can't even pronounce his real name. I gave him the name Connor, just because we need to hide his identity."

"From what? You could confuse guys with that name." Ellie raise an eyebrow.

Achilles chuckled to himself from her retort. Connor rolled his eyes. "I must keep it undercover from the British soldiers, or any ally of the opposing side. It also helps to have a shorter name to pass freely throughout the city limits." He explained to Ellie, seeing that she nodded in understanding. "And, I can't help but ask you a question." He gestures his hand out to Ellie's direction. "Are you a different type of American?"

Ellie raised both her eyebrows. "Who? Me? I'm just average." She shrugged both her shoulders. "Nothing for you guys to worry about."

As for her answer to being up in the tree, she lied passed the question by saying she was being chased by a group of British savages in the woods, and climbed her way up to the top of the tree, to lose them. She then said that she fell asleep up there.

"Just when you think trouble is gone, you wake up, and it feels like you've been sleeping for centuries, only to be woke up by the news that, hey! It's the American Revolution! Time to get your guns armed and your wits up! Because fuckers out there are about to be shot down!" Ellie couldn't help but exaggerate greatly, to the idea of still being completely shocked and confused by the time period she was thrown in.

She heard Connor make a snort, and a sounding smirk. "Why does that sound so reflective...?" He asked himself.

"You sure you didn't run off from the docks in town?" Achilles pressed on the comedic question. "You've got quite the language."

"I'm not brought up by a bunch of drunks, Achilles. I just... I've got a lot of heart, in what I say." Ellie smiled at him. "If I need to swear up-and-down to get a point across without pretty words, then I will. No exceptions!" She added in, with a strong tone of voice.

After speaking in a warm and welcoming conversation, Achilles suggested to Ellie to disguise herself from the British soldiers that found her different. From the way she thought and acted, it wouldn't be a complete surprise if she was found to be under suspicions of any soldier's eye. Especially since she dressed in different clothes that were not merged in the era of their time properly.

"I'm not wearing a fucking dress." Ellie refused, following Achilles upstairs to the spare bedrooms. "I've seen how the women dressed in this era. I'm not going to wear a stupid dress. I'm especially not going to tie my hair in a stupid bun, either." She warned Achilles, as they approached an old wooden wardrobe closet with clothes inside.

"I know, I know." Achilles stopped her. "You've certainly got the boyish notion, though. Colonial clothes for the young men should suit you more."

"That's great." Ellie made a thoughtful smile.

The Colonial clothes for young men were something Ellie fitted into well. She liked how she could still wear pants, instead of a dress that could just get in her way. The black vest and black pants brought out the traditional notion of being a neutral in war. Her bright, unmarked, dress shirt underneath the fitted vest wasn't as baggy as she imagined it to be. It fitted around her slim arms well, and still covered up her bruising, infected arm. The collar hugged her neck. She had to wear the ridiculously long stockings, though, to make it seem more normal. She also had to wear the comedic black shoes.

For something else to go with the outfit of her neutrality, she wore a pitch black, plain tricorn hat. She still wore her hair in a ponytail, and let her bangs hang out freely.

Overall, she looked like a boy, if some would ignore her petite chest and face. To most that looked at her now, she looked especially normal. Something that Ellie would never understand in the American Revolution era.

"I can talk like a man, so that helps." Ellie shrugged to the idea.

"You talk more than a man." Connor couldn't help but joke.

"Says a _man_." Ellie retorted.

Achilles made a hard "pfft", with a bellow of laughter following suit.

**Ellie meets the two characters, Connor Kenway and Achilles, for the first time. How will things turn out after this? And will Ellie fit into the fray?**

**Find out more, in the next chapter! :)**


	3. The First Priority

**[Just In Memory]**

A few days into the homestead, Achilles found it suitable to put Ellie into doing work around the property. Instead of unable to do anything but sit around, she was helping with building up the property with the new set of workers Connor gathered a while back. As much as Ellie hated the idea of working, she knew that she would just be kicked out if she didn't pick herself up.

As much work as she did, Achilles decided to teach her some things on defending herself. She was a quick learner, and fought through most of his lessons in a swift notion of wits and combat. In her pocket, she somehow still had her handy switchblade, that she wouldn't let anyone else touch. As much as she started to put some of her trust in Connor and Achilles, she would never trust them with her only weapon.

It was a supposing-sign of developing trust, to them, that they had to work on.

"Climb fast!" Achilles shouted up to Ellie, as she climbed right up a towering tree on her own.

"I'm climbing!" Ellie shouted back.

"Well, climb faster!" He retorted, stamping the end of his cane into the ground.

"Heh." She chuckled to herself. "Something Joel would say..."

Constantly, she wondered about her home back in her own time. How were things going? Was time standing still, while she was transported into the American Revolution? Was Joel okay? Was he still resting in that chair, while Ellie was in that Animus? The questions just began to weigh down on her small shoulders constantly, and she tried hard to tell herself that everything was fine. That nothing horrible was going down.

If she woke up from the never-ending dream of war going on in her head, she couldn't wait to get up and tell Joel all about it.

Four days into the timeline, with a homestead full of her constant swearing and courageous outbursts, training and making friends with the only two trustworthy people, Ellie was starting to fit into the era little-by-little.

"You fight as if you have fought before." Connor complimented Ellie, patting her on the shoulder.

Ellie nodded, pressing her lips together thoughtfully. "I've... been in some gruesome fights with those fuckers before." She said, truthfully about being in complicated ordeals, and lying about fighting with red coated soldiers. She remembered that the red coats were known to be tough, but, she honestly had no idea _how _tough they could be, in a real combat.

"The Boston Tea Party is something awfully familiar to me." Ellie mentioned, while downstairs in the training room with Connor. "A bunch of Americans dumped the mother-load of British tea into the dock waters and celebrated like crazy! Like, woohoo!" She threw her arms up dramatically, making Connor laugh.

"That was something that had just recently occurred, my young friend." Connor admitted to her, taking Ellie by surprise. "Just yesterday, my men and I stormed the said ship, that carried the cargo of Boston's tea, and we unloaded it all in the face of the red devils everywhere that couldn't stop us."

"Success." Ellie raised her hand up for a high-five. Connor looked down at her opened hand, bewildered. "Don't leave me hanging!" She shook her hand. "High-five."

Unsure, Connor opened his hand and collided his opened palm with her's.

Ellie smiled widely. "Yeah...!" She put her hand down.

A sound of someone approaching the homestead shook both their senses into looking up at the small window of the basement room. They both looked at each other, with curious intentions into finding out what the noise was from above.

The two ventured upstairs into the main room, walking towards the opened front door of the homestead. There, they saw that a messenger was outside the door, with Achilles reading a given note in his hand.

"What is it?" Connor asked Achilles, as he approached the two. Ellie followed behind, looking at the note in Achilles' hand.

Achilles lifted his eyes up from the opened note. "A request for aid, from Paul Revere. Seems as if the red coats are up to something, in Boston." Achilles then looked at Connor with his eyebrows raised. "Guess you made an impression on the sons of Liberty."

Connor made a declined look on his face. "They mistake me for one of their own."

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows to what Connor said. She looked up at him as well, while he wasn't paying her any mind.

Connor turned to the messenger. "Please, tell Mister Revere he has my sympathizes, but I cannot help at present-"

"Paul Revere?!" Ellie stopped Connor's message with her sudden outburst. "He's the guy that's suppose to be running around town, on horseback, screaming 'The British are coming! The British are coming!' He's suppose to be warning some guy named Samuel Adams and a few others." Her small hint at the name of Samuel Adams caught Connor's rightful attention, as he looked back to her with the utmost interest in what she was saying.

Achilles decided to also join in the feud. "You might wish to reconsider." He says to Connor. "John Pitcairn is mentioned by name."

"Where am I to go?" Connor asks in a firm tone.

"Mister Revere's house, in Boston." The messenger answered. "If you'd like, I-"

"Come with me." Connor took Ellie by her wrist and walked her out of the homestead door with him, pushing the messenger aside. "You seem to know what the red coats' intentions are. I will need you to stay at my side." Connor said to Ellie.

As much as Achilles was shouting at Connor to not drag her into the ordeal, Ellie wanted to get out of the property and help Connor out.

"Fine!" Ellie agreed, snatching her hand out of Connor's grasp.

* * *

**[Meeting Revere]**

Arriving to the house of Paul Revere's, Ellie was keeping up with Connor's fast-paced marching towards the front door of the stead. Connor seemed very intent into knowing more information on this John Pitcairn man. Ellie wasn't quite familiar with the name from all the history books she read in her own time, but if he was that important to Connor into confronting him, then she needed to do more catching up.

"Do you think John Pitcairn's even here?" Ellie couldn't help but ask Connor. "Seems too easy to meet up with him."

Connor made a smirk. "Honestly? I do not think he is present..." He glanced over at Ellie once, with a disapproving smile, before he opened the door to a tea room.

Inside, they found Paul Revere, standing up and pouring some tea into some empty cups for his present guests sitting at a round table.

"Ah! Connor!" Paul Revere said in his naturally loud voice. He set down the tea pot on the table surface. "What a relief! You came!" He approached Connor with a grin on his face, noting the fact that Ellie was right at his side as well. Paul Revere put his hand on Connor's shoulder, in attempt to guide him over to the others at the table. "Allow me to-" Connor immediately pulled back his shoulder roughly, surprising Revere. But, Revere didn't take it personally. "Allow me to introduce you to William Dawes and Robert Newman." He gestured out his hand to the other men, who nodded to Connor as a silent greet.

Ellie stood next to Connor, unsure of what to really say to the others in the room. But, she did feel the comfort of Connor's hand on her shoulder, as he walked her alongside with him as he paced into the room in a walking notion. "Your letter said that John Pitcairn was here." He looked at Revere with an unreadable look in his eyes. To Ellie, he didn't look too glad to see that Pitcairn wasn't present, as Revere said he was.

Revere went to the room door and closed it, as Ellie had forgotten to do. "Aye. He's planning an assault on Lexington, where Adams and Hancock have taken shelter."

"_Told _you." Ellie folded her arms, directing her words to Connor, without looking up at him.

"I am, in all honestly, not phased that Pitcairn is absent." Connor glanced at Ellie, shrugging his arms.

"Aye." Revere nodded his head. "After that, though, he will march onto Concord, hoping to destroy our weapons and supplies." He looked at Connor, seeing that his expression hadn't changed from his previous glare. "You _must _help us."

"Only tell me where to find him, and I _will_ put a stop to this." Connor simply put out. Ellie glanced up at him now.

"He has dozens, if not _hundreds_, of soldiers at his command. You cannot hope to handle him, by yourself. But, fear not! For you won't have to!" He approached Connor again, with his hand extended out to his shoulder once more. But, he didn't touch his shoulder yet. "We have an entire army of our own! Awaiting order to take up arms!" He said with such enthusiasm, pumping his fist into the air. Both Connor and Ellie found his energy to be abundantly odd.

"Then, you must call upon them." Connor said, stepping forward to look at Revere closely.

"Indeed!" Revere went for Connor's shoulder, making Ellie chuckle to Connor's dismay. He patted Connor's shoulder, only to quickly pull away when Connor directed his eyes straight down at his shoulder. "You and I cross the Charles' River and round the boys!" Ellie was ready to start laughing out loud to Connor long stare at his own shoulder. Connor was just ready to snap Revere's wrist, if he tried reaching for his shoulder again.

While Revere gave orders to the other two men in the room, Ellie stepped close to Connor's side and dusted off his touched shoulder.

"I think this guy is seriously intent on grabbing your shoulder all night." Ellie made a smug smirk up at Connor.

"_Cute_." He rolled his eyes. "My ears will be next to explode, if he is going to be bringing me along with him, on this task." Connor sighed. "You still come with me, though. I cannot trust strangers, if not strange _men_, around you." He reminded Ellie, which made her relieved to hear. "Do you know how to ride horseback?"

"Yeah. No problem." She nodded. "But, there's only two horses outside."

Connor gave her a very, very long stare... He knew what she meant, and he wasn't going for the plan. "_You_ are riding with me, then. Revere can take the other horse-"

"Connor!" Revere shouted his name in more enthusiastic energy. "I will have to ride horseback with you, in order to direct the destination!"

"_Fuck_." Connor suddenly raised his voice. When he realized what he said, he slapped his hand over his mouth, covering it in utter shock.

The three other men in the room also looked on at Connor, in complete shock, and confusion.

Ellie was the only one in the room looking at Connor with a wide, opened smile on her face. Her eyes were also glittering to the new word Connor finally used.

"Teamwork!" Ellie clapped her hands together, as a self-high-five. "Connor speaks like a man."

Only close to one week around Ellie's constant swearing, and Connor was instantly becoming influenced by her strong language. As much as he found it absurd to speak with such a set of words to others, he also found it refreshingly new to find that there was a young child that was matured enough to speak her own thoughts. She wasn't being snarky or disrespectful. She just really had more heart. And Connor was influenced.

As the task included, Revere was to be escorted around the town to give word to other comrades of the army to start rounding up the men for fight. Connor had no choice but to saddle Revere with him, on the single horse they shared. Ellie had her own horse, galloping alongside with Connor's horse on their expedition. Of course, Revere was well known for having a loud voice, in order to get his point across.

"I believe we're on coarse!"

"To the _left_, Connor! To the left!"

"We must get back on track!"

"Yes! We're back on coarse!"

"_Shut_ the _fuck_ up, Paul Revere!" Ellie couldn't help but explode, threatening to toss the shouting man off the horseback. "You _shut_ the fuck _up_ until we get to Samuel Adams' whereabouts, or so help me, I am going to make Connor turn that damn horse around!" Which Ellie wasn't anywhere regretful about screaming at Revere.

Connor had also warned the attack to Samuel Adams, and the other men he had refuged with. Seeing Samuel Adams, Ellie was slightly intimidated, knowing that he was an iconic character in history textbooks everywhere in her time. Revere wasn't so much of something for her to be so intimidated by, though, since he was blatantly obnoxious.

"Who's this?" Samuel Adams asked Connor, looking down to Ellie. "Is she a lost child around here?"

"I'm Ellie." She decided to find the moment incredible enough to introduce herself to a historic icon. "Travelling with Connor and all those heroics... Nothing big." Looking up at Samuel Adams, Ellie noticed how

Samuel took both of Ellie's hands and shook them firmly. "Another youngster rebelling against the British, in the name of freedom. You influence the children, do you not, Connor?" Samuel smiled at Connor.

"You must leave. The British are planning their attack." Connor immediately warned Samuel.

"This we know, which is why we are waiting them out, in hiding." Samuel assured Connor, in such a calm demeanor.

"You do not understand!" Connor stopped Samuel. "Pitcairn is planning to kill you."

Heeding the warning greatly, Samuel Adams picked himself up and gathered the other men he hid with to start moving out of the hideout. Connor and Ellie stayed behind in the hideout to keep a look out for more soldiers that were likely looking for Samuel Adams and his comrades. Paul Revere took leave to warn the other citizens of their arrival, mostly because he was starting to feel intimidated by Ellie's demeanor.

"Connor!" Ellie tugged Connor's sleeve hard. "The days has come, to where I am going to teach you how to speak like a man."

"Do I not speak man enough?" Connor asked her, with an unsure look on his face.

"Hell no. With that fucking mellowed attitude of yours, no one is going to take you anywhere to serious." Ellie brought out her demeanor once more. "A real man's speech is everything that has nothing to do with insulting the shit out of another, though. Like I said before, it's all about what's in your heart."

"So... it's all about telling the truth." Connor started to catch on.

"Exactly!" Ellie patted Connor's shoulder. "Nothing with bad feelings towards the other shithead. You're just being truthful. As you may know, _I'm _always truthful."

**Things may seem as if nothing big is going on now, but I promise in further chapters of the tale, things will turn for the actions and all the feels. Ellie's demeanor and speeches always reminded me of "man-talk" from the film,_ Gran Torino_. She is full of heart, and speaks the truth, guurrrllll.**

**Will her teachings of showing Connor the full-extent of speaking like a man go through? And will Paul Revere shut the fuck up?**

**Find out, in the next chapter soon!**


	4. The Jailbird

**[The Fight For Dominance]**

"Nice speech, from an asshole." Ellie couldn't help but say aloud, after she overheard the iconic speech before fight, from General Putnam.

The quick-pacing years on Connor's side had only felt like days, whenever she would close her eyes to take a rest. Whenever she opened them, it would be another year gone, even though she did nothing to make the years go on without her permission. The war still raged on, and she was still at Connor's side.

Apparently, since the Animus was skipping her beyond years of recognition, her improvement on fighting had begun to increase greatly. Her climbing abilities leveled with Connor's fluid parkour as well, and she was still armed with her switchblade. But, not only that, but she was trusted enough by Achilles to be given her own pistol. Something she was much more use to using, instead of hand-to-hand combat weapons. She was also given a second bow-and-arrow set, with a full-quiver strapped to her back at all times.

If there was anything she remembered more fondly of in the realism of her other world, was that she adored silent killings more. With the archery set and pistol handy in her holster, everything felt right once more.

After the speech to the blue coated soldiers, Connor and Ellie approached General Putnam, when he sat himself down on a crate, lighting up a large cigar.

"Good to see you once again, sir." Connor nodded to Putnam. "A speech full of shit, like that, deserves some applause. Too bad I ran out of that."

General Putnam barked out laughing, with his lit cigar bobbing between his lips. "At least someone here knows the damned speech is full of shit. I like your thinking, Connor." Putnam got up from the crate and gave a heavy pat on Connor's shoulder. "And how's the little brat?"

"Haha, fuck you, too." Ellie glared at Putnam.

Once again, Putnam couldn't help but bellow out more laughter.

"And how are the minions holding up?" Connor couldn't help but ask. "Red coats still being cocksuckers?"

"More like a bunch of cockroaches unable to be fucking squashed." Putnam scoffed, before taking a long drag from his cigar.

Ellie listened hard to the conversation, unable to stop her contained smiles and laughs coming out. Putnam knew how to speak up like a man, but now hearing Connor speaking with a loud and heartfelt voice in every single word he gave, without a regret of a single curse word, Ellie was on the boarder of feeling awfully proud of teaching him how to bark, and bite, at the same time.

"If the fuckers want this hill, then let them have this hill." Putnam sighed out a mouthful of gray smoke from his mouth, as he stood at the edge of a tall hill structure with Connor and Ellie at his side. All three looked on at the view of a smoky Boston ahead, seeing how it was almost fogged in the mist of gunfire and canon smoke. "Boston is the _real_ prize."

"Well," Connor took something out from the inside of his coat pocket. "We've got bigger problems." He handed Putnam a folded letter that he had stolen from the murdered corpse of John Pitcairn he obliterated not too long ago.

Putnam took the letter from Connor and unfolded it, reading what was the secret report inside.

"This must be wrong!" Putnam was ready to drop the cigar out of his mouth. "This report is a direct order to Washington's assassination!"

* * *

**[Behind The Hood]**

When those words were said, a bright flash of white light blinded Ellie's vision greatly. She closed her eyes tightly and covered them with her hands. Her head was having a mild headache from the intense movement of time slipping away faster into the future of what was suppose to be happening, once it stopped moving forward.

When the bright lights disappeared from behind her hands, she uncovered her hands and opened her eyes, finding that she was in the dining room of the homestead. She made a confused look on her face as she saw Achilles settling a silver plate down onto the opposite side of the dining table from where she was sitting, seeing him casual acting normal.

"Have a migraine, child?" Achilles asked Ellie.

"Pssh." Ellie rubbed her eyes. "More like an explosion in the brain." She joked with a chuckle.

Before Achilles could respond to that, Connor suddenly skidded right through the hallway of the stead, finding Achilles at the dining table. Ellie's eyes grew wide, just because of Connor's quick reflexes.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Ellie hollered at Connor.

Connor ignored Ellie's retort, directing his attention to Achilles. "Or, you can just admit that you were wrong!" He shouted at Achilles.

Ellie was confused as to why he was raising his voice. She looked up at Achilles, who shook his head. "Oh, child, please. You've killed two men, and one more salesman-soldier." The old man then looked at Ellie, gesturing his hand up at her to follow him. "Come with me, young one." He said, seemingly ignoring Connor for a moment of his time. Ellie didn't know what to seriously say, but get up and follow Achilles. "You're going to have to try a lot more harder, than that, to impress me." He directed that comment to Connor, while Ellie was walking by Achilles' side.

"Is that so, old man?!" Connor sounded outraged, marching right after Achilles and Ellie. "Or, perhaps we should step outside. I would gladly demonstrate how easily-"

"We've got a guest!" Ellie cut off Connor immediately, once she and Achilles stepped into the second room of the dining room. "Great way to start." She sarcastically complimented him, before she gave Connor a thumbs-up. "I swear, every time Connor's raising his voice, there's an awkward situation afterwards!" She threw up her arms and dropped them.

"Uh..." The nameless guest spoke up, awkwardly.

"Connor!" Achilles gestured his hand towards the guest. "This is Benjamin Tallmadge." Ellie gave the Benjamin character an up-down with her eyes, and made an unsure look on her face. "His father was one of us, no need for secrecy. I think he has something to say..."

The small talk with this Tallmadge character was something interesting about a Templar named Thomas Hickey. Hearing that name made Ellie chuckle every time. He explained that Hickey was a close ally to the grand master of the entire ploy. The grand master's name was Haytham Kenway. The last name caught Ellie's attention long ago, but, she didn't want to bring it up to Connor, merely because it was none of her business.

But, the constant obvious to what this Haytham stranger's relations to Connor, were making it harder to keep quiet about the question.

On the travel to find Hickey and his whereabouts in town, Ellie was on the task with Connor. While travelling there, she finally decided to bring up the question.

"So... Haytham Kenway... want to talk about him?" She asked Connor, while they were on horseback and heading to town. She sat behind Connor, with her small arms wrapped around his stomach. She looked up to the side of his face, that was partially covered by the hood over his head. "I don't mean to be pushy. I just keep hearing his name a lot by other people I don't even know, and..."

"He is my father." Connor finally answered. Ellie was partially surprised by the answer, but not entirely, since she had a hunch that the Haytham character could be a related figure in Connor's life. "I have not laid eyes on him in person, but, that portrait of him in the training room is the only thing that gives me an idea of what he appears to look like." The way Connor spoke of his father was drenched in something that sounded like venom, and confusion, of who Haytham could really be. To Ellie, Connor sounded completely unsure of what to think of his father. "He is a Templar. The same people that destroyed my homeland. I can never forgive them for that..."

"Oh." Ellie shifted her eyes down to his shoulder, with her expression falling. "I'm... sorry, for bringing it up."

"It is not your fault." Connor assured her. "The question was going to come up sooner or later, was it not?"

Ellie made a sounding smirk. "Yeah. It was a little edgy for me to _not _talk about it!" As that was finally cleared out of the fog, Ellie then went back to priorities. "So! How are we going to catch this Hickey asshole? Old-school rough housing?"

And her question was answered with a given yes.

Something as a tactic she expected from a brutish Assassin, such as Connor. His idea of jumping into action was to do it, literally.

Finding this Hickey's hideout in the isolated part of town, Connor and Ellie found that his place was in a closed off area, behind the rusted-color door of a small house. Ellie knew exactly what Connor was thinking, and took a few, giant steps back to give room for his grand entrance into the fray.

Connor charged straight towards the locked door, and drop-kicked it straight opened. The door flew inside the house, barging into a soldier's back, that was guarding it shut. Once Connor was inside, he was met by the rebellious faces of nameless men, and one distinctive face of Hickey. Ellie jumped inside the house with Connor, with her favored switchblade out and prepared to be used on enemy attacks.

"What's this then?" Hickey grumbled in a strong English accent.

"Thomas Hickey?" Connor looked right at the man's eyes.

"Might be." Hickey glared at Connor. "What's it to ya?"

Connor didn't answer. He unsheathed his hidden blade from his grieve and gripped the handle in his hand, prepared to attack.

"Oh." Hickey saw the blade in Connor's hand. "There's s'ppose t' be none of your kind left!" Feeling intimidated by Connor, Hickey pushed some of the guards in front of him and shouted, "Get 'im!" Before he cowardly ran straight out of the building, through another exit of the small house structure.

Connor snaked passed a guard's quick grasp and exited straight through the same opening as Hickey did.

The guard was, instead, met with a hard stab into the neck by Ellie's switchblade. She used her petite, but brutish strength, to throw him straight down onto his back, pulling out the blood-coated blade, and went chasing Connor's tail onto the streets.

The chase went into the streets like the famous running of the bulls. Ellie, developed to Connor's speed, was running so fast that her tricorn hat flew off of her head, but she didn't mind it. She always found a spare after the day ended. She flew through the crowd of taller folks, and delivered hard stabs into the upcoming guards that tried to halt her from the chase. The stabs consisted on a hard jab into the chests, and throwing them down onto the ground on their backs, as she continued to pursue Connor's back.

The pursuit ended quickly, after Connor managed to grab the back-collar of Hickey's coat, and pull him back. He turned him around and gripped his shirt collar tightly, pressing his back into a building wall they were about to pass. Ellie caught up to Connor finally, sheathing her switchblade. The men were speaking of something about Washington's demise, but she didn't quite catch anything important in the midst.

Before Ellie could take a proper breather, she was suddenly grabbed from behind by unknown hands. Her upper arms were grasped tightly, holding them back from trying to grab for anything that was weaponry in her belt.

"Connor!" Ellie screamed Connor's name, catching his attention.

Connor whipped his head over his shoulder to see that Ellie was held captive by an officer. Before he could react, he and Hickey were also grabbed by their shoulders, and pried apart from each other.

"You're under arrest!" The man that had Connor and Hickey shouted.

Hickey panicked, holding his hands up in defense. "H-Hey now!" He stuttered nervously. "We were just having a scrap-off, mister! Ain't nothing wrong with, uh... two men, settling their differences, the old-fashion way!" Hickey sounded frightened by the idea of being put into jail, lying his way out of the potential arrest. "Can't we just-"

"_Quiet_!" Connor shouted right in Hickey's face, with a snarl. He then looked at the officer. "What're the fucking charges?"

"Counter-fitting!" A third officer joined the feud, with a large bag of something heavy inside, that Ellie remembered seeing Hickey carrying.

"Fuck that!" Connor pointed at the large bag. "I had _nothing_ to do with that!"

"_'Course_ not!" A fourth officer made a snarky retort at Connor, with his arms folded.

"Fuck you, assholes!" Ellie screamed, prying her left arm out of the officer's hold and delivered a sharp jab into his stomach with her elbow. He let her go with a cough, holding his stomach, while she tried to make a run for it. The third and fourth officers stopped her instantly with a hard punch into her face. She was thrown back by the punch, landing onto her knees, giving a chance for the officers to grab her arms once more.

Connor saw this and was ready to attack. "_Don't _fucking touch her!" He screamed.

"She's under arrest for disturbing the peace, and attacking officials with deadly force!" The fourth officer shouted, delivering a vengeful sucker-punch into Ellie's face. The punch was enough to put Ellie out in a blank.

"_Stop it_!" Connor's own outbursts were making the officers fearful of an assault form the Assassin, so they also restrained him back with more officers. "You do not fucking get it! Hickey's the one that should be arrested! If you do not do something, he will kill-!" Connor's screaming was shortly cut off, by a hard punch into his face, that splattered blood from the corner of his lips. The sharp jab into the face was also enough to knock him out cold.

* * *

**[The Jailbird]**

_"Is she wakin' up...? I'm tired o' waitin' f'r the young nimrod t' wake up...!"_

_"Patience, Thomas... You cannot rush slumber..."_

The conversation of men stirred Ellie awake from her headache of a blinding knock-out. She put her hands over her temple of her head, making a pained groan as she turned herself over to her back. She could feel the rising pain of the bruises on her face starting to also wake, burning at her senses like fire. She squeezed her closed eyes once, and reopened them to the blurry vision of an old jail cell. Everything was extremely dark, but smelled of body odor and metal of chains.

As she slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position, she heard a voice from across the dark cell speak.

"Ah. See! She wakes!" The voice sounded English as well, but nothing familiar as to what Ellie could recognize. She squinted her eyes on the dark, trying to focus on a dark figure behind the iron door of the cell. A small, barred window was the only source of dim light beaming into her box of a jail. "You seem to be the favorite of the Assassin. And, the most talked-about young lass of the town."

"What the fuck do you want?" Ellie hissed loudly at the foreign face.

A chuckle behind the door sounded delighted to her venomous words. "I am Charles Lee. Charmed to meet you." He dared not to open the cell door, though. "I would properly greet you with a hand-shake, but you may bite it off."

"No..." Ellie shook her head. "I'll _break_ your _fucking_ fingers!" She shouted out, glaring right at the face of Charles Lee. "What the_ fuck_ do you want? And, where's Connor?" Ellie weakly pulled herself up to her feet, balancing herself up with her hand on the cold, stone wall.

Charles Lee made a thoughtful look on his face, shifting his eyes over the cell floor for a moment, before he shifted his eyes up to Ellie's. "All in good time. But, perhaps I will tell you _now_, if you tell me your name." This man sounded as if he was confident on getting a straight answer from a young girl like Ellie. He was oblivious to the rumors of her strong personality and her sharp mind to not listen to other strangers.

"Oh, _sure_, I'll tell you my _name_." Ellie sarcastically hissed at Charles. "It's a rare and exotic bird's name, called _none-of-your-goddman-business_."

On the other side of the door, Ellie could hear Hickey laughing at Charles. "She just swore you off the list, mate!" He barked out laughing.

"Silence!" Charles whipped his head to look at Hickey, giving him a sharp glare. It was enough to make him quiet down.

Charles looked back inside the cell window, only to catch a glimpse of Ellie charging right at the door and slamming into it. She shoved her hands out the bars of the window to try grabbing for Charles' face, but was unsuccessful to do so, once he reacted fast, and jumped back.

Before Ellie could snatch her hand back into the cell, Charles grabbed her wrist, and pulled hard on her arm. Her body flew into the cell door and slammed onto it, hard. He did the same attack three times, for good measures, to make her drop down. Ellie's corner lip was smeared in blood now, and she let out a pained groan to the sharp pain in her face again, blistering into fire underneath of her wounds.

"You stupid fucking girl!" Charles screamed into the cell door window. "You couldn't just sit, and listen! You're a fucking brute, like that Assassin!"

"Fuck... you!" Ellie screamed back, but not loud enough, for her blistered corner lip. The skin under her right-eyebrow was busted and bleeding heavily. Her right-cheekbone was bruised and cut from also being busted from the perfuse slamming into the iron door. "I'm bleeding like fucking crazy here!" She shouted out, backing up to the end of the cell once more, to put her hand over her bruising face.

"Good!" Charles spat at her. "Perhaps you will learn some manners next time-"

"_Charles_?" A different voice rung out strongly outside the cell. It was another British accent. "Are you yelling at the youngster?" The voice sounded abundantly proud and airtight with confidence and strength. A man's humbled voice.

Approaching the cell door window, Ellie could see that it was the face of Connor's past.

_Holy shit. Haytham. _Ellie said to herself in her own thoughts, not wanting to speak aloud on his identity.

It was indeed Haytham Kenway. The memorable portrait of his face and outfit was burned in Ellie's memories. He certainly had the entire look down. The tricorn hat; the long coat over his shoulders, and the dark outfit.

Haytham gazed into the cell window, spotting Ellie quickly.

"What the deuce is this?!" Haytham raised his voice. The cell door unlocked with the loud, metallic cackle of the hatches easing out, and Haytham marched straight into the cell, approaching Ellie fast. Ellie remained where she was, staring up at Haytham's face. "What happened to this girl?! She's got new injuries on her face!" Haytham put his hand under her chin to lift her face up higher to examine her new wounds. "I specifically asked you to _not_ mangle her anymore than how she was before!"

Charles and Hickey were both slightly shocked, to the sight of Ellie _not _attacking Haytham. She wasn't in the present state of defense, either. She allowed Haytham to examine her dotted face of injuries.

"Blame that_ Lee_ guy." Ellie told Haytham.

Haytham turned slightly to look at Charles right in the eye. Hickey took a step back from the cell door. "If this is how you treat children, then I'm praying you won't be a father anytime soon!" Haytham threw out angrily, before turning back to look at Ellie's face once more. "Dear, oh dear." Haytham clicked his tongue in disapproval. "I assume these _gentlemen_ weren't being polite enough to give you a proper greet-and-meet, correct?" Haytham asked Ellie, patting the side of her head, after he finished looking over her injuries.

"_No_. They're fucking _animals_." Ellie shot a glare at Charles, who was standing in the cell doorway.

"Do you have a name, youngster?" Haytham asked her now. Ellie shifted her eyes back to his, with an unsure feeling.

"Don't try, chief." Hickey scoffed. "When Charles asked, she was ready to rip his tongue out!"

Ellie pressed her bloodied lips together, thinking hard on her answer. She then answered to Haytham, "Ellie."

"Elizabeth!" Haytham gestured his hands up to the air. "You see? Was that _so hard_ to _ask_ a girl her name?" He glanced at the two men outside the cell. "All you have to do is ask."

After that ordeal, Ellie was told by Haytham that Connor was somewhere in a different dungeon of the jail block. Ellie was in the jail block meant for the criminally insane teens that were unable to be controlled. He only knew about her hereabouts because of Connor's ranting to know if she was overall fine from the recent beating she took from the officials on the streets that arrested her with force. Haytham was in that part of the jail block earlier, to pardon Thomas Hickey from his jail time.

"Connor speaks highly of you." Haytham nodded to Ellie. "As do some of the citizens in New York and Boston that have met you."

"I don't care about that." Ellie put out. "I just want to get to Connor."

Haytham folded his arms, lowering his head for a moment to think. "Well, you can't. He's going to be kept in jail for a longer period of time. I, on my own behalf for your safety's sake, had given you a pardon, as I did for Thomas."

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows at Haytham, studying his eyes for a moment, to read anything in them. It seemed as if he were telling the truth.

"I can just leave?" Ellie blinked, making an unsure chuckle. "Go back to the outside?"

"Well, not naturally." Haytham shrugged both his shoulders. "As the pardon, I will have to keep you under my own watch, until Connor is freed."

Ellie pressed her lips together in a displeased look. She knew the pardon came with a catch. She shifted her eyes down to the cell floor to think hard.

"As displeasing as it sounds, I am quite sure Connor cares as much for you to not end up in a place as this." Haytham looked up at the four walls of the cell. "A place like this for a young girl is no home. Besides, he would want you in better care." Haytham was obviously using some talk to Ellie to convince her onto leaving the jail block with him. Whatever reason he had planned, Ellie had no real choice into picking out for herself.

Ellie made a frustrated sigh. "_Fine_." She agreed.

"Excellent!" Haytham smiled, patting Ellie's back firmly. "Let's be off, then."

Walking out of the cell, Ellie threw threatening glares at Charles and Hickey. Two men she was going to keep a very close eye on for now on.

"Move the _fuck out_ of the way." Ellie hissed at Charles, moving away from where he was, to circle around towards the emptied hall. Haytham didn't object to her profanity, to the others' dismay. He just let her speak the way she wanted. "Where's my stuff?" She asked, folding her arms around her stomach, once she felt the chilly breeze of Winter air from the outside of pried cell windows she was walking passed.

"I've arranged your belongings to be brought to the carriage waiting on the outside of this block. Everything is there." Haytham informed, walking alongside her.

Ellie sighed in relief to hear that. "I'd never go anywhere, without my switchblade..." She quietly said, still walking towards the exit with Haytham.

"I know." He simply said. Ellie threw him a glare.

**Things change, momentarily, for Ellie's time. A good start to introducing Haytham and his henchmen in this chapter, I'll say.**

**Will Ellie trust Haytham? Will she still try slitting Charles' throat for hurting her? How will things turn out, now that Connor is unable to watch over her?**

**Find out more, in the next chapter!**


	5. Understanding Man

**[Courtesy Call]**

In the snowy fields of an isolated area within the icy regions of Boston, Ellie was out hunting. She hated the idea of being stuck in the rented-out inn, in the town with the Templars, and wanted to always get out and be herself, in the wild. Something that made her think back to the times she was still scavenging for food rations with Joel, or climbing high in trees with Connor.

At the moment, she was merely hunting with her bow and arrows. She was chasing a lone elk in the woods, silently marching into its death with her readied bow that was prepared to fire an arrow. Once she released, the elk's head was met with the numbing pierce of a sharpened, metallic end of the arrow's knock at it's death-side door, making it drop dead with just the one hit wonder.

"Gotcha." Ellie quietly said to herself, getting up from sneaking through a tall brush of snowy, untrimmed bushes.

Her wardrobe was completely different now. Since she had to stay with Haytham, he had given her a new set of clothes. They were ordinary clothes, but nothing in Colonial women's garb. She still wore well-fitted Colonial boy's garb, with the black waistcoat and pants. The legs to her pants were longer now, covering up her long sock-covered shins. She was also given a tailor-made long jacket, that was her size. The tails of her new, heavy jacket ended down to her calves. The long sleeves that met to her palms were comforting from the cold.

And, of course, she still had to wear a tricorn, black hat. Everything was still black, still signing neutrality of war.

As Ellie appeared out of hiding to approach the dead elk's body in the snow, she heard a sound of some twigs behind her snapping.

Immediately, she reacted, by raising her bow with a readied arrow. She turned to look behind her. "Who's there?" She shouted out, scanning the brush and tree trunks with her eyes. "Come out!" She ordered in a strong voice, stepping forward once towards the brush. There was no one there.

Until she realized too late...

"Surprise!" A familiar British accent shocked her, from behind. Her bow and arrow were both snatched right out of her hands, in large hands from above her head. "You're too easy to track, girl. An excellent hunter, but not well in covering your tracks." It was Haytham.

Ellie spun around and tried grabbing for her archery weapons, only to be deceived by Haytham's height, and childish behavior in holding her bow and arrow high above his head from her grasp. He barked out laughing to Ellie's angered face.

"Don't look so flustered, Elizabeth." Haytham said, finally handing back her weapon. "I'm simply telling you the errors of your ways. Follow by checking up on you."

"Psh." Ellie scoffed, taking her bow and arrow from his hands. "My name's _Ellie_. Not Elizabeth. Don't call me that. And, don't you have better things to do, than baby-sit me?"

"Yes. I've better things to do with my time, than nanny a wildlife girl." Haytham could help but say.

"_Good_. Leave me alone." Ellie tried walking away, but was quickly grabbed by the back of her long jacket's collar, being pulled back.

"_But_," Haytham begun again, while pulling Ellie to his side. "I can't help but notice that your tracks are so obvious." He adjusted the front of her jacket, and fixed her tricorn hat to sit properly on her head.

Ellie sighed heavily, dropping her shoulders. "I never learned how to hide my tracks, okay? I'm not very good at that." She admitted, while sheathing her bow around her shoulder, and putting back the arrow in her quiver set.

"You can still learn." Haytham sounded very assured to that comment. Ellie looked up at him with big eyes. "Why don't I demonstrate a few tricks? I've my own tactics." Haytham smiled at her, patting Ellie on her shoulder.

Ellie didn't quite understand Haytham. She knew that the stay with him was just temporary, but he was especially kind enough to let her stay in the inn, that alluded the whereabouts of his and the other Templars' hideout. She actually found it more confusing that he was willfully allowing her to hear plans and private conversations of his and the other Templar mens' ploy on whatever else they were plotting. Not to mention, revealing the identities of the said Templar men.

Constantly, Ellie put it as some way of Haytham to get onto her good graces, so that she could trust him, but she was obviously not going for it.

"'Less you've no techniques in climbing into trees and jumping to tree branch to another, then your hereabouts are most noted." Haytham explained, as he settled in the highest tree branch of a tall oak tree. "Elizabeth! Are you taking note?" He shouted, wondering where she had gone to.

"You're not going to call me _Ellie_, are you?" Ellie said, sitting right behind him.

Haytham looked over his shoulder at Ellie. He was seemingly surprised, but obviously tried to cover up his enthusiasm. "Oh! You know how to climb! Good show!" He gave another smile. Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "I propose you understand leaping from tree branch to tree branch, correct?" He asked, standing up to ready himself for a leap to a nearby tree branch.

"Just tell me where to go, and I'll catch up." Ellie simply said.

Spending time with Haytham was oddly something that reminded her of something Connor would be teaching her to do. The only reason why Ellie felt most comfortable around Haytham was because of his same eyes that Connor shared. The height and lean weight was something strongly similar to Connor as well. Haytham obviously didn't have so much of a mellowed attitude, but more of a charming and charismatic persona about himself. Ellie found it interesting to see that Haytham wasn't as brutish as Connor was, but at the same time, she was the one being the brute now.

Her constant presence around Haytham, just because he insisted on her to stay close, was something that she knew the other Templars were catching on to. They obviously disapproved to the idea of Haytham keeping Ellie, Connor's ally, so close to him at all times, when she could have any chance of perfect timing to kill him. Charles Lee disapproved the most, but, Ellie actually found his refusing ways to be a sort of act on jealousy.

She remembered stories from Achilles of how Charles Lee was just _so _intent on being Haytham's trusted man in the Templar movement, and found it to be something of envy straight from the older man's eyes, whenever he saw Ellie right at Haytham's side. Charles spent most of his life being the star, but now, Ellie was taking spotlight, for a moment of her unwilling time.

"You should come to our next discussion, Elizabeth." Haytham suggested, as he landed down onto the snowy ground, finished with his lessons for the day.

Ellie jumped down, straight on her feet. "Fine." She sighed. "If that creepy fucker, from the inn, doesn't give me weird looks."

"Creep? What creep?" Haytham asked, looking straight at Ellie with a hard stare.

Ellie sighed again. "That inn-keeper gives me weird looks all the time. I think he's a fucking creeper or something, 'cause he's always staring at me."

"_Really_?" Haytham raised his eyebrows to that small information. "Hmm."

* * *

**[Just Saying]**

Whenever the conversations that went down in the second-floor of the inn, Ellie tried her best to not pay much attention.

She was sitting on the second-floor as well, but in an armchair that was pulled up to a large window of the meeting area. She folded her legs close to her torso, with her feet up on the cushion of the large chair. Her chair wasn't faced away from the men in the room that were gawking on about their next priority. All Ellie could memorize in her mind was the name-sake of a man called Benjamin Church.

Ellie's eyes were fixed on the falling snowflakes outside the thick window pane. She hadn't seen snow fall so delicately in a long time. She would usually see a big storm of snow hail outside any shelter she was forced to take refuge in. Never had she once thought that snow could also be calm.

"... She could be a rat." The sentence woke Ellie's ears up. "What if she tells the others of our said plans?" It was Thomas Hickey speaking. His slurs and poor judgments were what made Ellie complete sure it was the drunkard.

"Never you mind Elizabeth." Haytham brushed off Hickey's warning. "She's nothing like those tattling fools on the streets."

Ellie sighed to herself, still keeping her eyes on the snowflakes falling outside the window. She kept her ears opened, though.

"How about this?" Haytham stopped the others from objecting. "How about I keep an eye on Elizabeth, while you all keep minding your own business?"

The others fell quiet. Haytham took that as a signified yes.

"Elizabeth!" Haytham called her name. "What're you doing over there, like an outcast?"

Ellie scoffed to that. "Just thinking about something..." Ellie shrugged. "Thinking of the differences between Templar and Assassin."

"Come hither." Haytham gestured his hand out to her. Ellie listened, picking herself up from the armchair and strolled over to Haytham's side. "Do you see this?" He held up his right-hand to let Ellie see that a silver-crimson ring was around his ring-finger.

"Whoa! Nice!" Ellie couldn't help but bark out, grabbing Haytham's wrist with both hands to take a closer look at his ring. It was another first of Ellie to see something as real, made of silver and crimson, shining brightly in her candied eyes. Her eyes practically glimmered as the ring's designs did. "This looks wicked. In a good way!"

Charles Lee was about to object to Ellie's reflex on grabbing Haytham's wrist so quickly, but Haytham dejected him down. "Do not fret. She is merely looking." Haytham turned his attention back to Ellie. "Thing ring signifies everything that we Templars understand and consist on. And what we pursue is Order, Purpose, Direction, and Understanding. Your young mind must have been blatantly misguided by the idea that we seek the crown to rule, no?" He glanced up at Ellie.

Ellie thought hard for a moment. "Templars don't want the crown?" She repeated.

"Of course not!" Haytham raised his voice, sounding slightly offended. "We are merely taking out the idiots who seek the wrong control of mankind. Such as that foolish commander called George Washington."

"Oh." Ellie didn't know what to really say.

"_Oh_?" Haytham playfully mimicked, giving Ellie a smile.

Ellie made a chuckle to that. "It's just that... _hm_... I guess we're not different."

Somehow, she felt a side of herself sympathize for the Templars, but at the other side, she didn't know whether or not to completely go along with the idea of the assassination of the iconic commanders of history. Miserably, Haytham was in the ideal of taking them out, one by one. She shrugged one shoulder, sitting down in an empty chair, next to Haytham.

_What would Joel say, right now_? Ellie asked herself, looking up at the other men staring at her, with either curiosity in their eyes, or daggers. She then looked back to Haytham. "Well, whatever you guys are planning, I'm still on Connor's side." She boldly admitted.

Haytham made a sounding smirk. "Well, your friend is on the wrong side. What are you? Twelve?"

Ellie made a scoff. "I've known Connor, longer than you, to know that I can trust him. And, I'm _fourteen_, if that's anywhere important to know at all..." Ellie calculated the fast-pacing years that had crossed her mind, that she had spent at Connor's side. "It's been... shit, about three years at his side." Until she had come to realize, _I haven't aged one bit in those time periods..._

Hickey cleared his throat abruptly. "Ah, bonding." He slurred, before taking another swig of beer from the bottle. "Ain't that ringin' true, _Elizabeth_?" Hickey eyed Ellie.

Ellie scoffed once more at Hickey, rolling her eyes. But then, she looked back to Haytham. She studied his glowing eyes for a moment, with her dark ones. "Well... he's a young Clint Eastwood cool, so I guess he's all right." She shrugged one shoulder.

Haytham made a confused look. "Who's _Clint Eastwood_?" He then gave Ellie a sharp stare. "Are you speaking to strange men outdoors? Are they bothering you?"

"No!" Ellie assured, giving him a good shove to his shoulder. "You're not my dad, you know."

"No... but, I'm still watching out for you." Haytham reminded her, tapping his fingertip on her forehead playfully.

* * *

**[Man Of The Hour]**

"What's the real reason behind you, being some nanny, to this brat, sir?"

Ellie was given access to go hunt once more in the outdoors by Haytham. Since he had begun to worry for her safety in the snowy wild, he wanted her to hunt nearby the town's wall. Ellie, displeased with the new rule, did as he wished, and hunted closely to town. She had already shot down two rabbits with her bow and arrows, but only for game. Whatever she killed, bystanders passing through would ask for her kills, and she gladly allowed them to take whatever she hunted.

Haytham and Charles would sit upon a watchtower of the town's boarder wall, watching out for Ellie. Haytham was never the one to sit and nanny a child, so this was the very first of anything that Charles had witnessed. Never once would he expect Master Kenway to stop whatever task he was to be on, and watch out for a youngster, for someone else.

"Nothing particular. Perhaps curiosity?" Haytham answers, not taking his eyes off of Ellie, as she scouted another area of an elk strolling by. "Find out what was so special about the girl that people speak so fondly of. Perhaps influence her to the Templar movement. Something I propose could be something that she can understand well."

Charles scoffed. "She's too hard-headed to give in."

"Indeed." Haytham made a smile. "She's a bright girl, with so much heart, yet she is heavily loyal to the lost cause." He made a displeased sigh. "She would make a fine Templar, if I do say so myself. Alas, I cannot change her for the better. What's done is done."

Charles shrugged, still unsure of Haytham's intentions. He glanced down to the snowy field, noticing that Ellie had disappeared.

"Where is-"

"BOO." Ellie spooked Charles with her shout. Haytham was not phased, for he knew her intention of scaring him from start. "Haha, Charles got scared." Ellie climbed into the bird's nest of the watchtower and went to Haytham's side. "Where's Hickey? I thought that guy was going to be out on the field, too."

Haytham made a chuckle. If Hickey were in the field, then Ellie would have killed him by then. Haytham glanced to Ellie. "He's back at the jail block, awaiting his sentencing."

Ellie raised her eyebrows to the news. She then became excited. "Is Connor going to be okay?! Did they say anything about him?"

"Unfortunately, no." Haytham admitted in all honesty. "His sentencing is unbeknownst to us for the moment." The words made Ellie's hope fall flat. It was visible as well, when her smile suddenly fell to a straight line of doubt. Her eyebrows furrowed upwards with worry. Her eyes were naturally wide with unsure thoughts. "Oh, don't give me those eyes, Elizabeth." Haytham cooed as comfort, patting her shoulder. "Connor is a strong man, is he not? I'm sure he'll be fine."

"... Yeah." Ellie shifted her eyes down to the watchtower floor. "I'm going back to hunting..." Ellie informed, before she left to the ladder leading off the nest.

A few minutes of Ellie's time in the field, she never showed up on the grounds. She had vanished.

She had actually gone far from the town wall, to sit alone in the snowy woods to think to herself.

Using the new tactics of covering her tracks from Haytham, Ellie used the trees as walking grounds to find a pathway out of his watch. She made her way towards a cliff, that led down to a park below. Once she was at the last tree, she jumped down onto ground and rested underneath the leave-less tree. She noticed the view of Boston from that site of cliff, and wanted to sit there and think to herself.

She remembered well of what things could happen to prisoners, from her history books she remembered reading from her era. Prisoners that did such crimes that offended the public, or the officials, would be either sentenced to life in prison, or be hung by the rope. The thought of Connor being sentenced to death was something that could happen, Ellie knew. If he thought of breaking a rule indoors the jail block, then it would automatically send him down to the noose.

Ellie cringed deeply to the thought of Connor being hung. She shook her head hard, trying to make herself think otherwise. "Connor's not that easy to kill...!" Ellie told herself, folding her arms around her legs, that she hugged close to her chest. "He's too smart. He'll find a way out."

"How's hunting?" A familiar British accent caught her off-guard. It was Haytham.

Ellie looked up to her side, seeing Haytham standing there beside the tree trunk, arms behind his back.

For some reason, Ellie was surprised that he found her. "... Super."

"You weren't suppose to be this far from town." Haytham stepped closer to her side to crouch down next to her. "Have the news of Connor made you run?"

Ellie inhaled deeply for a moment, before exhaling through her nostrils. "... I miss him." She quietly admitted. "I'm just... worried to death about his sentence."

"Do you fear loneliness?" Haytham couldn't help but ask, still speaking in his formal voice. He looked at Ellie, while she kept looking down at the ground, with both her fingers locked together, in a thinking position for herself.

Ellie made a small snort. "Scorpions are pretty scary." She lightly joked, making Haytham smirk to that response. "But... yeah. I'm afraid of ending up alone." She pressed her lips together, nodding her head lightly. "Lost a lot of people I loved in the past. Most of them left me. Hard to keep a friend. Always felt like I failed..." She summed up, thinking Haytham didn't seriously care for what she honestly felt at the moment. "I don't mean to be all gloomy. I'm just..."

"I don't mind." Haytham admitted, looking back at her. "It's only natural to be afraid of something personal."

Ellie twisted her hands together, in a thoughtful notion.

"Have you no parents?" Haytham decided to boldly ask the question. "Mother? Father? Siblings?"

Ellie truthfully admitted in a quiet, and reserved, voice. "My mother passed away, when I was born. My father blamed and left me. I'm an only child." She looked at Haytham with her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Hey. What did Benjamin Church do? For you and those other guys to go searching for him?" She asked, in all curiosity.

Haytham raised his eyebrows to the name of Church. "He's accused of betraying the Templar Order, and abandoning the principles, in pursuit of personal gain. I knew the bastard for ions, and he shows his thanks by doing these acts of selfish desires for his own power." Haytham rolled his eyes, pressing his lips together. "I'm somewhat so disappointed in him."

"Because you knew him for a long time?" Ellie asked, still looking at him.

"... Well, _yes_." He answered quietly. "Feels more of a stab into my own side, instead of betrayal on the Order."

Ellie pulled herself up to stand, and looked down at Haytham. "What're you scared of?"

Haytham made a confused look on his face. "Pardon you?"

Ellie smiled. "Everyone's afraid of something. I told you mine, now tell me yours."

Haytham also stood up from where he was crouching, dusting off his coat. He then stepped forward to Ellie and adjusted her coat. Once he did that, he put his hands behind his back, and answered, "Failure. Same as you fear."

Haytham and Ellie walked back to town, speaking more of each other on the way back. Haytham found it be ironic that Ellie's past life was somehow similar to his own childhood, when he hadn't such a loving father, and an absent mother. He had a sibling, but the two never found it to be close, since they sought life on different perspectives. Ellie was something of a spitting-image to his past, which had begun to pull at his heart strings.

On the same night, something astronomical occurred.

Charles was back from an errand run in town, arriving back to the inn late. As he walked up the one flight of stairs to the second floor, he noticed that it was especially dark. When he made it to the top of the stairs, quietly, he saw Ellie in the same armchair she sat in earlier that day. She was curled in the armchair, with her side laying against the backrest. Her tricorn was off, in her arms, embracing it in her tired grasp. Her eyes were closed, and she snored softly in her deep slumber.

At the long, wooden table, he spotted Haytham sitting alone, absolutely silent. Charles saw a different look in his face, and didn't speak up to break the silence. He watched as Haytham had his hands on the table, fingers locked together, and his head down in a thinking position. His tricorn hat obscured his eyes, making himself look all the more frightening, and drastically darker than the unlit room itself. He was deeper in thought, than usual.

Before Charles thought of making a step, Haytham suddenly shot up from the chair he sat in and marched straight towards Ellie. He unsheathed a loaded pistol from his holster and pointed the barrel straight down at her temple, cocking the gun back, and his finger on the trigger.

What made the scene so astonishing was that Haytham was _hesitating _to pull the trigger.

He must have found a sort of message in his own mind to just kill Ellie, and be over with the nanny-sitting he had done for the first week of being at her side for the short period of time. But, it was enough to make him draw back the pistol slowly, with a disapproved scoff from himself when he did. He lowered the gun, and patted Ellie's head with his freehand as a soft wake-up call, while he sheathed the gun back into the holster.

"Hmm?" Ellie mumbled in her dozy state, fluttering her eyes open. "What's up...?" She asked in a weary voice, looking up at Haytham with squinted eyes.

Haytham stood silent for a moment, staring down at her for a long, long moment. Until he responded with a false laugh and smile. "You fell asleep in the armchair once more. Come. Go to the room I arranged for you." He helped her stand up from the armchair, receiving an irritated groan from a tired Ellie. "Oh, don't give me that. Go forth." He lightly shoved her by the back, leading her to a room door.

"You're not my dad." Ellie lastly grumbled, before disappearing into the room, forgetting to close the door.

Haytham stood where he was, with his hands behind his back, standing straight. He glanced over at Charles, who was giving him a bewildered, but unsure, look on his face, as to why he wouldn't kill Ellie before. Haytham just looked away, thinking for a moment, before shaking his head to himself, leaving to his own room.

_**"Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith. Entertain my faith..." **_**(Twenty-One Pilots' "Holding On To You").**

**Seems more of a Haytham Kenway and Ellie tale by now, right? Sorry 'bout that. Haytham is the best, though. :)**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	6. Reunited Again

**[Neck-Breaking Job]**

On a task to find information on this Benjamin Church's whereabouts in the snowy woods. Since Hickey was transferred back to the jail block to await his sentencing, Haytham brought Charles with him on the search. Of course, he included Ellie in the hunt, much to Charles' dismay.

"Elizabeth has a keen sense of tracking. Even though her own tracks are visible to other foes that'll find her, she is faster in finding our man."

"And, you trust her?" Charles wanted to laugh.

"There's never a time where I haven't." Haytham shrugged, surprising Charles.

"Fuck you, too." Ellie said behind Charles, before shoving him aside. "Move the fuck over. I'm walking." Ellie marched forward, ahead of the rest.

Still in the grudge over what she had for Charles, Ellie was never once kind towards him. She acted brutish and rude around him, even when they were around others. She wasn't the one to hide the obvious of hating his every being. Charles made an outraged look on his face, watching Ellie march off into the snowy path in the woods. Haytham couldn't help but make a smile and a laugh.

"It's not funny, sir!" Charles defended himself. "How could you still have her around, even the way she acts around others?!"

Haytham stood straight, with his hands behind his back, as he commonly stood. "She reminds me of someone I lost." Haytham simply put out. "She's a brute to others, but she hardly shows the same to me. Something I remember my father doing, as I was a child..." He sighed to himself. "Shall we be off?" He gave a nod to Charles, before starting off to where Ellie was going.

The tracks Ellie followed were something not a single person would have guessed to be useful, in their era. Faded snow prints of boots were beginning to be covered in debris, but, the smallest of snapped branches and twigs gave her mind the idea of their directions. There were also fainted signs of tree trunks being touched by rough hands, giving her the advantage of following suit. She continued trailing the signs of crushed leaves and partial evidence of wood, not belonging to the trees, until she could smell the scent of a bonfire up ahead of where she was, behind a tree.

They spotted a large opening of a cleared site, with five men resting there. Done from a long carriage trip, likely dropping off Benjamin Church off somewhere earlier, the men were taking a break next to a camp fire and having hearty conversations with booze they brought along the trip. Church was not with them, which was displeasing to their search.

"We can always make them talk." Ellie suggested. "We have to kill the rest, and leave one alive." She then spotted a man walking off from the others, going to take a break behind a brush of snowy bushes.

She was about to unsheathe her bow and arrow, when she felt Haytham grab her wrist, to stop her.

"No. Don't do that." Haytham warned her. "Charles, go and take care of him." Haytham looked right at Charles, who was sitting on the opposing side of Ellie's. "After that, take out the carriage rider over yonder. He looks as if he's walking far away from the crowd as well."

"Why me?" Charles sounded ready to whine. Ellie made a scoff to that.

"Because I said so!" Haytham was ready to raise his voice, but kept it to a minimum as much as he could.

"Why can't Elizabeth do it?" Charles kept pressing on.

"Because Elizabeth is an excellent killer, and she is more fluent with stealth. Isn't that obvious? Get to it!" Haytham retorted, sounding irritated. "Elizabeth," Haytham bought his attention back to Ellie. "No matter the cost, you stay perfectly safe. Is that clear?"

"I got this." Ellie nodded in understanding.

Charles Lee went his way, unwillingly, while Haytham and Ellie went the opposite way, to start their takedown. Ellie knew better than to think Haytham only wanted Charles to go ahead to the other oblivious men on duty, just because he was more stealthy. Haytham was actually not use to having Ellie separated from his side, especially in tight situations as where they were in.

While Haytham and Ellie took hide behind a fallen tree trunk, they were closer to the site of men chattering. Haytham was about to move, when he noticed that a man was heading straight to the tree trunk they were sitting on, to take a seat. Haytham unsheathed his hidden blade from the grieve around his forearm, and awaited for the man to sit. Ellie decided to back off from this one, just because Haytham looked intended to kill him.

Once the man took a seat, and being ignored by the two men at the bonfire, he pounced the man at his back, wrapping his arm around to clamp his mouth shut with his hand, while he made a powerful thrust of the knife into the man's throat. The man made a cry of agonizing pain, feeling his eyes roll back to the intense force of steel meeting his blood pulse, and he died instantly.

"He killed him!" The man from the carriage screamed, pointing at Haytham's direction. "He fucking killed him!" Charles didn't take care of the rider quick enough.

"Oh, dear." Haytham said aloud, dropping the dead man's body. "How embarrassing." He immediately reached for a hidden pistol in his hip holster, underneath his long cape, when he was suddenly shocked by the intense shove of a bullet meeting his chest. One of the men shot a long rifle at Haytham's chest.

"Haytham!" Ellie screamed, once Haytham hit the snowy ground on his back. "Holy shit! Haytham!" She immediately went to his side, putting her hands on his arm.

She saw that a bullet hole had penetrated his chest deep through the heavy fabrics of his coat and outfit shirt, but, she also noticed that something steel was underneath of his shirt. It was most likely a steel-plate of some makeshift bulletproof vest. Even with the bulletproof protection, it was obvious that the gunshot's impact would throw him back still. Black-out or stun the person for a moment of their time. Ellie remembered well on how bulletproof vests worked.

Ellie twisted her head to the other men on prowl. "Stay here. I'm going to flank these assholes."

"No...!" Haytham tried shouting at Ellie, but she was already over the log, and charging for the other men.

She pulled out her own pistol from her holster and aimed it at a man. She shot, hitting him in the shoulder, causing him to drop his rifle and fall back onto the ground. She threw her one-shot pistol to the ground and went straight for the lone-standing man with her switchblade unsheathed. He panicked, about to turn and make a run for it, when he was jumped right at his back by her tiny form. She hung onto his shoulders with one arm, while repetitively stabbing the blade into the side of his neck, three times.

From the carriage, she could hear Charles finally handling the loud-mouth rider that gave away their cover.

Ellie growled to herself to the last-minute kill from Charles, jumping off the man's back with her switchblade in her hand. His body dropped hard onto the ground, instantly dead. She marched straight towards the shot man, and delivered a hard kick into his face, when he tried to pull himself up to a sitting position. He went back down onto his back, and Ellie stamped her foot down onto his chest to keep him in place.

"Where's Benjamin Church?" She hissed down at the man, panting lightly from the recent struggle. "Start talking."

"I... I don't know who that is!" The man lied, through fearful trembling in his voice.

Ellie, already irritated enough by the fact that the operation went with a failure, knelt down to the man's side and slammed down the blade's edge straight into his other shoulder. Blood spurted, and the man screamed bloody murder to the new, painful sensation riveting his body in agony. The blade pierced between the shoulder socket of his arm and shoulder, ready to be popped off if Ellie twisted the blade with force.

"What did you say again?" Ellie snarled with anger in her voice. "You give me a better answer, or, I'm going to pop your goddamn shoulder off!" She shouted at him. The reason why she shouted most at this man, was because he was the shooter that shot Haytham. "Where's Church again?"

"H-He's not here!" The man screamed out, gasping for air. "He's out of town, _but_, h-he plans to make a drop-off on Southern Road, t-tomorrow! I-I swear!"

With that, Ellie pulled out the blade from his shoulder and sheathed her weapon. "Okay." She nodded with a heavy sigh, grabbing him by the front of his opened jacket and pulled him straight up to a sitting position. "Just stay here for a minute. I'm going to confirm what you said to the other guy you brought here." She got up from kneeling and slowly walked around the man's back, pretending to leave off elsewhere.

The man let out gasps and pants of trembling fright, and a hint of relief, to the idea that he was let go. Before he could process everything going on in his mind, he saw a shadow cast over his form. He fearfully looked up in front of him, seeing Haytham and Charles standing there.

"I'm not lying of what I've said! I-I've told you everything you wanted to know... Now, let me go...!" The nameless man shook in fright, to the sight of Haytham's stature shadowing him with a dark formality.

"Of course." Haytham responded to the man, before glancing up at Ellie to give her the okay.

Immediately while the man's guard was down, she threw her arm around his neck and started strangling him tightly in her one arm. She gripped harder and harder, suffocating the man to near unconsciousness with her arm hugging his neck. Ellie felt the man's hands clawing at her slim arm, while gasping for air. When it came to the right moment, she pulled harder, and popped his head off the neck socket. She then twisted his head sharply to the right, snapping his neck in the process.

He let out a scratchy gurgle, before going slump in her embrace. She dropped his body once the gurgling stopped.

"Well played." Haytham's voice broke her out of her killer's trance.

"Thank you." She breathlessly nodded once.

Haytham then glanced over to the dead man Ellie stood over. "You didn't interrogate the other men?"

"It's all right." Ellie shrugged to that. She pointed at the dead man with her blade. "I believe him." She then cleaned off her bloodied blade with her long sleeve of her coat.

* * *

**[So Be Concerned]**

"Charles will have to be sent out of town. I will stay here, with Elizabeth, and hunt down that Church."

Haytham's plan to surprise Benjamin Church for the attack was to not have Charles present. Another detail of another reason why was something kept from Ellie. Obviously not wanting her to know something abundantly important with the ploy. But, she didn't have to stay put in that wretched inn for long, and she didn't have to leave with Charles elsewhere, so she was glad to not know much more.

As much as Charles didn't want to leave Haytham with Ellie, because of the fact that he still did not trust her, he unwillingly left town on carriage. "I merely pray that cess will not come your way anytime soon, friend." Charles lastly told Haytham.

When morning dawned, Ellie and Haytham had gone out to the snowy woods to search for the Southern Road. Both did not mind the cold, mostly because the snow flakes or hailing of icy water had begun to subside for the time being, giving them a perfect chance of exploring without nature's wrath.

"What's it like, being a Templar?" Ellie asked, as she walked alongside Haytham, on the snow-covered dirt road with him. "Sounds like a lot of work to be one."

Haytham made a raise of his eyebrows, glancing down at Ellie. Was she possibly considering to become a Templar? "Always a lot of work. Not a moment's rest. Why do you ask?" He asked, purely out of curiosity.

Ellie shrugged, rubbing her hands together to keep them warm. "No reason. Just thinking of the life, if I were one."

"So, you _have _thought of converting to the Order." Haytham made a surprised look.

"Yeah. But, I'm not going to leave Connor." Ellie reminded him firmly. "Once we get this Church guy, I'm going to pay a visit to Connor in jail. I want to see him soon."

"In other words, you're leaving my side now." Haytham summed up, sounding a bit saddened.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "It's not that I don't like you, Haytham. I just can't be influenced by the wrong guys that'll hurt Connor." She glanced up at Haytham, seeing that he was hearing what she said, but still had a look of disappoint in his face. She gave him a good shove to his side, breaking him out of his trance. "Don't be like that. I think you're a pretty cool guy! You've got a lot of heart, and you like to say what's on your mind. _Blunt_, yeah, but so am I, so we comprehend well together."

Haytham made a click from his tongue. "Very well." He could only answer. Still displeased by the idea of Ellie ready to leave his side, but he couldn't keep her forever. Unless Connor was surely dead in the jail block, then maybe. But, if not, then he couldn't. Still, he took in Ellie's compliments and words of comfort as a good sign that he's had some of her trust. Not wholly, but just partial of what she would never give.

"Today I don't feel like doing anything." Ellie hummed and quietly sang a song to herself, while the dirt road was closing into the Southern Road. "I just want to lay in my bed. 'Don't feel like picking up my phone, so leave a message at the tone. 'Cause today, I swear, I'm not doing anything." Then, she dramatically threw her arms up. "Nothing at all!" She laughed aloud. Haytham couldn't help but chuckle aloud once more. "Have you ever had those days?" She asked him after her laugh faded. "Being completely lazy?"

Haytham chuckled to the song title. As much as he had no clue of who the musician was, that Ellie was referring to, he could only imagine what the lyrics could be. "Best not to sing it now."

Arriving to the Southern Road, Haytham and Ellie found a lone building structure of what looked like a church. Ironic, since their target of the day was Benjamin Church. The building looked ready to crumble from age, and the heavy piles of snow weighing the roof down with more icy pounds gaining on it. Ellie didn't find the place to be so much of a threat, since the door to the building was missing, and she could visibly see that the interior was emptied out.

"Maybe he didn't come yet!" Ellie suggested strongly. "Let's search inside."

Haytham let Ellie go through the front door, while he had decided to climb up the building walls to see if he could see anything from a higher point.

Inside, it was nothing but a large wooden floor and four walls. It was cleaned out of anything that was recently placed there. It made Ellie feel more comfortable to the fact that there was nothing inside for enemies to hide behind or under. Still, Church was not where they had wished for him to appear in.

"Hm." Ellie hummed to herself thoughtfully, stepping across the room to look out an opened window. She saw nothing, but snow, outside.

"Stay where you are!" A voice, not belonging to Haytham, shouted out loudly into the emptied building. Ellie was started, and immediately spun around to see who was there. Her eyes met the pure white silhouette of a familiar figure of a hooded man she had missed standing across the room from her, with a hidden blade from his grieve unsheathed and readied to be bloodied. It was Connor.

"Connor!" Ellie was ready to swoon over in utter nostalgic sensations riveting her veins. She wanted to cry. "Connor!"

"Ellie?" It was indeed Connor, from the way she could instantly remember his mellowed, low voice. He sheathed the blade. "Holy shit, Ellie!" He stepped to the middle of the room, about to reach to Ellie's point, when he was suddenly surprised by the drop-off of Haytham making a surprise pounce at him, from above a beam he saw upon. Connor hit the floor on his back hard, with Haytham's weight almost crushing him in. "Father...!" Connor breathed out, staring right up at mirroring eyes.

"Connor..." Haytham said his name, with his hand holding Connor down at his chest, and his other hand unsheathing a hidden blade. "Any last words?"

"Wait...!" Connor tried stopping him.

"A poor choice." Haytham callously smirked.

But, before Haytham could strike with the blade, Connor reacted fast, by shoving him off hard with his freed hands. He threw Haytham back far enough with his feet as well, and jumped up to stand. He and Haytham now stood at a far distance from each other, circling each other like wolves, ready to strike at any time.

"Come to check up on Church?!" Connor shouted at Haytham, pointing at him furiously. "Making sure he's stolen enough, for your British brothers?!"

Haytham was ready to laugh. "Benjamin Church is _no _brother of mine. No more than the red coats, or their idiot king!" Haytham stopped his circling to make a disappointed exhale to Connor's demeanor. "I expected naïveté, but, _this_?" He glared at Connor hard. "The Templars _do not _fight for the crown." He said in a straight-forward voice. "We seek the same as you, boy! Freedom, justice, independence-"

"_But_," Connor stopped him from his ranting, still pacing the floor.

"Hm? But, what?" Haytham shrugged both his arms for Connor to continue.

Connor shook his head in disbelief, and pointed at Haytham once more. "Johnson, Pitcairn, Hickey! They sought to steal land. To sack towns. To murder George Washington!"

Haytham made another irritated exhale, shaking his head. "Johnson sought to _own_ land. That we might keep it safe." He looked up to Connor once more. "Pitcairn aimed to encouraged diplomacy, which _you _cocked up _thoroughly _enough to start a_ goddamn_ war!" Haytham's voice was raising higher with fumes, enough to startle Connor back just a tad. "And, Hickey?" He breathed out to keep calm. "George Washington is a wretched leader. He's lost nearly every battle, in which he's taken part. The man is wracked with uncertainty and insecurity!" He then looked at Connor once more.

Connor was quietly listening to everything Haytham was jawing, but still pacing.

Haytham then looked over to Ellie, seeing that she was standing across the room still, with an uncertain look of expression. He then directed the comment to her, "Only look at Valley Forge and know my words are true. We're all better off, without him!"

"Do not speak to her!" Connor yelled sharply at Haytham. "She's nothing to do with this."

"_Look_," Haytham stopped him midway through his threat. "Much as I'd love to spar with you, Benjamin Church's mouth is as big as his ego." He boldly stepped slightly closer to Connor, to get his point across. "You want the supplies he has stolen. _I _want him _punished_! Are interests are align." Which was thoroughly ringing true.

Connor knew. "... And, what do you purpose?" He quietly asked him, with calmer eyes.

"A truce." Haytham suggested. "Perhaps..." He cleared his throat to the words he was about to say. "Perhaps some time together will do us good." He put his hands behind his back, still looking at Connor. "You _are _my son, after all, and still might be saved from your ignorance." He then unsheathed his hidden blade once more. "I _could _kill you now, if you'd like." It was a callous offer, to which Connor gave a smirk to. Haytham smiled back. "Excellent!" He sheathed the blade. "Shall we be off?"

"Can I hug Connor now?!" Ellie shouted, finally able to chime in. Not waiting for a clearance, Ellie ran to Connor and embraced him tightly in her slim arms.

Connor hunched over slightly to wrap his arms around Ellie's small back, embracing her tightly as well. "Have you been fine?" He asked her.

She then backed off and delivered a hard punch into his chest. "No!" She shouted at him. "You scared the shit out of me! I thought you wouldn't come back!" She was ready to start crying in happiness to see him, but at the same time, angered over the idea of Connor's extermination. But, she went back and embraced him with her small arms around his torso, and her head pressed against his chest firmly.

"I know. I am sorry." He patted the top of her head, brushing some of her bangs aside from her forehead. "Why have you not returned to the homestead?"

"Haytham." Ellie gestured her hand to Haytham. "He bailed me out of that jail block, and I stayed with him for the entire week."

Connor made a smirk on his face, not able to believe whatever came out of Ellie's mouth.

But, he gave Haytham a look of threat on his face. "If anything happened to Ellie, while I was gone... I'll-"

"No, nothing happened!" Haytham rolled his eyes. "A young girl, capable of hunting and stealth, is perfectly capable of caring for herself. I was merely taking her under my care to not let those savages amongst the New York crowd lay a hand on her."

Connor still couldn't believe what was being said. He knew well that it was nothing like Haytham to waste his time caring for an enemy's ally. He looked down to Ellie, seeing that she also nodded up to him with an assuring look in her eyes. With that, Connor begun to believe everything being told.

**In the next chapter, the three are on a magical adventure of father-son disagreements and distributes, and fighting over what should be best for Ellie.**

**"Two guys fighting over the same little ol' me. Honestly, I feel like the prettiest girl in prom!"**

**Read more, in the next chapter soon! :D**


	7. Light 'Em Up

"You did not have to kill him!" Connor shouted at Haytham, after the bloodshed of a nameless man, that worked with Benjamin Church earlier. Blood hit the tree trunk he was pinned against, and some hit Connor's hood and face. Ellie made a shocked gasp, also surprised by Haytham's action.

Haytham sheathed the pistol into his hip holster. "Let's not waste time of all this pointless banter." He looked at Connor. "Go catch up with the rest of Church's men. Infiltrate that camp of theirs, and see what you can discover."

"Wait!" Ellie stopped Haytham, as he turned to start walking away. "You're not coming with us?" She sounded disappointed.

Haytham turned back to Ellie and gave her a warm smile. "Fret not, youngster." He patted her shoulder. "It won't be for long."

"What're you planning?" Connor chimed in, sounding not too pleased to hear his father already departing.

"Never you mind!" Haytham gave Connor a stern look. "Just do as I ask!"

* * *

**[Rock With It]**

Where ever Haytham was going, it didn't matter at the moment. Connor and Ellie ventured forth to find the camp Benjamin Church could be hiding at, finding it rather simply, behind the large trees and brush of the snowy woods, and onto a clearing of large camping tents, stacked logs, and Church's men chattering and scouting the area for any outsiders.

Connor could easily blend into the snow, from how white his outfit and hood were, but Ellie couldn't, for she would give away his cover. She took cover behind dark cabins of logs, eavesdropping on men passing by and having a conversation with each other.

"If you've a problem, why don't you take it up with Church himself, huh?!" The first man gawked at the other.

The man thought for a moment, before asking, "Is he here?"

The two sneaks were following the two men in the utmost silence, hearing more on the whereabouts of Church. What ringed in their ears was that his location was now moved out into New York, as refuge from being thrown into the jail block once more.

Ellie and Connor followed them closer to the riverside, where they were about to approach a man standing alone there, when suddenly, two other men were shouting something from afar.

"Look what we found!" One of the men jawed in a chipper attitude, as he helped drag along a captured Haytham to the lone man.

"Dummy." Ellie whispered to herself, as she watched Haytham being interrogated by the man.

"Must be a Yank Spy!" One of the men suggested to the other.

"Nah." The lone man stepped closer, bending down to have a better look at Haytham's face. "He's something else. Something special. Ain't that right, _Haytham_." The man said his name with emphasis. "Church told me _all_ about _you_."

"And, you should know better, than this..." Haytham retorted lowly.

Which was delivered a hard punch from the interrogating man, across the face. Small spurts of blood spat from Haytham's mouth immediately, coating his lips in red. "You aren't in the position in making friends, are ya?" The man hissed down at him, glaring as well.

"Not yet." Haytham could only respond.

Ellie took the chance and took out her bow and arrow to ready an arrow at the interrogating man. She aimed perfectly, and shot the arrow. The arrow silently cut through the cold air, and sliced straight into the man's forehead. The strike threw him back onto the ground, killing him instantly.

"Ambush!" A man shouted, before Connor jumped into action to attack the other men holding Haytham.

During the scrap, Ellie was now armed with a heavier weapon to use. She had found an old, rusted machete behind one of the cabins, and decided to take it. It was surprisingly sharp from recent care, and Ellie was tearing through the minor men in neutral garb as if she were slicing butter. Her eyes gleamed as she looked down at the bloodied machete, so immerse in the giant blade's dual-actions.

Connor dealt with the other mercenaries easily with his tomahawk, barely using his hidden blade for the much stronger men that carried axes and large backpacks.

While Ellie and Connor scrapped down the rest of the men, Haytham shouted towards them, "Once you've dealt with these louts, come find me in New York!"

"What?!" Connor breathlessly swung his tomahawk into a charging mercenary's face. "You mean to just leave, now?!"

"If you can't handle a couple of mercenaries, then we've no point of working together." Haytham lastly retorted, before he disappeared behind the cabins.

"Unbelievable!" Connor spat in anger, still cutting through the men trying to stop him.

"Watch out!" Ellie shouted, swinging down her new machete at the head of a strong man about to attack Connor from behind. The machete's force sliced straight through his back, splitting his spinal-cord, and instantly killing him as he fell flat onto the ground. "He tried creeping up on you." Ellie panted, pulling out the machete's edge from the warm, dead body of the strong man.

"Thank you very much." Connor bowed his head to her.

"You're welcome." She nodded back.

The mercenaries were soon wiped out, with Connor and Ellie immediately departing for New York afterwards.

* * *

**[The Meet Up]**

Arriving to New York, in the cooler evening, Connor and Ellie were in the middle of a non-busy street, scanning the area for Haytham's appearance.

"Where is that man?" Connor asked himself, irritated.

Ellie noticed this, and decided to lighten the mood. "Okay. Now that we're out of the way of mercenaries, it's time to lighten the mood, with some jokes." She suggested, catching Connor's attention. "Want to hear some?"

"... I suppose." Connor shrugged one shoulder.

Ellie smiled. "Listen good to this one; a book just fell on my head. I've only myself- no, wait!" Ellie made a hearty laugh at herself, grinning. "I said it wrong!" She cleared her throat, and rehearsed the joke once more. "A book just fell on my head. I've only my-_shelf _to blame." She laughed lightly to the said joke. Connor made a bewildered look at her. "... I ruined it." She blamed herself quietly. "What about another joke?"

"Evening." A familiar voice from behind Connor sounded out. It was Haytham. His face was cleaned from the blood. "I see that you two made it back, in one piece."

"Psh." Connor scoffed at him. "Recovered from your _beating_, then?"

"Ouch." Ellie couldn't help but say, as she saw Haytham's face fuming with anger.

He wanted to retort, but, instead, he ignored the insult enough to tell more news. "Benjamin Church is hold up, on an abandoned brewery, in the water front." He explained, pacing onto the street, with his hands behind his back. He looked down at Ellie and gave her a small smile, as a greet. He then looked back to Connor. "We should be done with this, by sunrise."

"Good." Connor nodded his head. "I would like to have those supplies back, as soon as possible."

"Of course." Haytham rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't want to keep you from your _lost cause.._." He then started walking ahead. "Come along, then. Follow me."

From how silent the climbs upon rooftops of buildings was ear-piercing to Ellie, she was also sensing something off of Connor's demeanor. She sensed that he was weighing something mentally heavy on his shoulders, that he soon wanted to get rid of. Ellie also noticed how silent Haytham was, from how he didn't mention much of what he wanted to say as witty and snarky comments, like he usually did.

"Want me to leave you alone?" Ellie finally brought up the question to Connor, once they were standing upon a flat rooftop, with Haytham going ahead. "I'm just sensing some bad mojo in the air, and I think you two need some privacy, is all..." She looked up to Connor's eyes, waiting for an answer.

Connor hesitated for a moment, with his eyes to the rooftop ground, and thoughtfully frowning slightly to the offer. He then looked to Ellie, and nodded. "Something I want to speak to him about. You may venture on the streets, but, do not go far. Understand?"

"I'll be close by. Don't sweat it." She patted his upper-arm as assurance, before she departed downwards the building she was on. She lastly saw Connor and Haytham stand together on top of what looked like a church rooftop.

* * *

**[The Painful Jokes]**

Ellie went down onto the streets, casually strolling the sidewalks and humming a song to herself. As she could remember the lyrics in her head, she didn't want to sing them aloud onto the public streets. She would be looked upon as a lunatic or a crazed teen that escaped the ward. So, she just walked by herself, lightly swinging her arms back and forth, and kicking pebbles under her feet, that were scaring off some black rodents showering the bricked streets, in search of food or small hideouts.

When she turned a corner, she walked passed a street-lamp. The light above her head shone something dangling at the tip of her tricorn hat she still wore. It looked like some dirt or lint from travelling. She sighed to herself, annoyed, while removing her hat to dust off the debris.

"Hey! Lookie here!" A man's voice suddenly boomed out, startling Ellie. "A youngin', wearing clothes of a boy's!"

Ellie looked over to her left, noticing a bustle of men, standing in front of a large, wooden entrance of a sealed-off area. They seemed to have been guarding it heavily, for reasons unknown. It seemed important enough to make Ellie's mind tick, to the suggested thought of Benjamin Church's hereabouts indoors the sealed area. But, she was first confronted by the dozen of men looking down at her.

"What's with this, then, eh?" A man boldly grabbed Ellie's long sleeve of her black coat and tugged at it, as if he were testing the fabric. "_Tailor-made_ coat. Nice. But, shouldn't a little girl be wearing the garb of a normal woman's wear?" He sounded smug with that remark, making the other men laugh along with him.

Ellie made a sounding scoff, straightening out her hat upon her head. "Wearing a girdle, you mean? Isn't life suffocating enough?" She joked, unnecessarily.

But, the blank joke made the men laugh more. She made a confused look.

"Hopefully, you wash better than the rest of 'em, then. You would smell of perfume, if you were more lady-like." Another man retorted to Ellie.

Ellie then remembered a joke reeling in her head, that she wanted to tell Connor earlier. "Yeah? Well, I was addicted to soap once. But, I'm _clean_ now."

"Hah!" The same man barked out, unable to contain his laughter to the pun. "Okay, okay. Hadn't heard that one before."

"You've got more jokes under your sleeves, youngin'?" A different man asked. The others looked at Ellie with laughing faces.

Ellie made a wide smile on her face, preparing to fire away all of her painful jokes she had bottled up in memory.

Five minutes later, after the long talk upon the rooftop together, Connor and Haytham travelled onward to their destination. Leaping from rooftop to another, they finally found the back alley of a shadowy backyard of a home, with a ladder leading down to the ground. When the two got down to the ground, they quietly walked towards the way out of the alley.

"Hold a moment." Haytham stopped Connor, as they both heard the bellowing laughter of men echoing through the streets.

The two peeked around the wall to see what they were laughing at, only to spot Ellie standing right at the entrance of their next step of finding Church. She was saying something to the guards, that was making them laugh hard and clap their hands in a jovial manner.

"What the deuce is that girl doing?" Haytham asked Connor, keeping his eye on Ellie.

Connor saw Ellie laughing along with the guards, after she made another comment. Connor raised his eyebrows when he figured it out. "She's telling jokes..."

Before Ellie could make another joke, she heard the familiar sound of Connor's whistle in her ears. She didn't look his way, only because she didn't want to direct attention to him. Instead, she ended her comedy stand-up with a farewell to the guards, and waved goodbye while she started jogging off to where Haytham and Connor were hiding. The guards were waving and saying goodbyes to Ellie like they weren't going to see her ever again.

"What in the world are you doing?!" Connor raised his voice slightly at Ellie, angered and worried all together. "I told you not to go far!"

"I didn't!" She raised her voice slightly at Connor as well, folding her arms. "And, I was just telling jokes to those guys. I was making them crack up! Did you _see_ them dying of laughter out there? They _loved_ me!" She grinned widely, with her eyes shining.

Connor exhaled through his nostrils heavily, calming himself down. "Just don't run off far... I worried."

Ellie dropped her arms, nodding, but slightly understanding. "... You're right." She admitted with a small sigh. "I'm sorry."

"Alright," Haytham decided to break the conversation. "Now that's done with, back to business." He peeked from behind the wall once more, seeing that the guards went back to formation, guarding the sealed area. "Church, you clever bastard."

"What is it?" Connor asked Haytham, also looking at the guards.

"I was hoping to wave you past the guards, but, he's replaced them with most I don't know... Hmmm." Haytham thought for a second to himself. "Well, Elizabeth and I could be able to pass, without arousing suspicion. But, you?" He gestured to Connor's outfit, from head-to-toe. He then looked to Ellie. "Come along-"

"No." Connor grasped Haytham's arm quickly, stopping him from departing with Ellie. "We all do this together, or not at all."

Haytham made an annoyed look. "Then, what do you purpose?"

"I will find a guard, who is off-duty, and take his uniform." Connor explained his ideal.

Haytham shrugged his shoulders. "Very well." He walked back to the alley way wall, beside Ellie. "I will wait here, with Elizabeth."

"Of _course_, you will." Connor lastly spat at Haytham in a hiss.

"_Oh_, I'm sorry. Would you like me to come along, and hold your hand, perhaps? Provide kind words of encouragement?"

Ellie couldn't help but make a long "pfft" of bottled laughter escaping her pressed lips, as Connor just waved Haytham off with a hand, as he left to find an off-duty guard.

"That's awful." Ellie bumped her elbow against Haytham's, sitting down on the ground with him, with her back against the brick wall.

"_You're_ awful." He joked lightly, mimicking her elbow bump to her upper arm. "You seemed to have gained trust of those guards in a nick of time. You could pass without arousing suspicion already."

"Super." Ellie shrugs, with a smile on her face. "I'm great at conversations. Want me to tell you a joke?" She grins up at Haytham.

Haytham made a sounding smirk, rolling his eyes. "Fine. But, _one_." He warned.

"... I tried to catch the fog, but, I _mist_."

Haytham furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, trying to understand her pun. When he got it, he made a silent, "oh."

"Yeah! I know, right?!" She slapped her knee and laughed. Haytham just smiled again, but to Ellie's jovial mood, instead of her painfully bad joke.

After Ellie calmed down her laughter, she made a big sigh, and frowned the corner of her lips. "... Connor's mad." She glanced back up to Haytham. "He's awfully quiet."

"... Yes." Haytham shrugged one shoulder lightly. "Mad at me, most likely." Haytham pressed his lips together, nodding his head. "I could see it that way."

"Aw," Ellie reached her hand out to Haytham's broad shoulder and patted it. "It's okay, Haytham. I still like you." She gave him a heartfelt smile, with her big eyes.

He patted his hand over her smaller one. "You know something?" He decided to admit. "I honestly thought you were Connor's daughter."

"Pssh. What?" Ellie wanted to laugh more. "You're loony."

Haytham shrugged his arms, still smiling slightly. "Rumors going about the streets, of a hooded man, running around with a very young girl, made me think that Connor had a secret child. Honestly, when the idea came to mind, I grew completely offended of Connor keeping you out of sights for so long." He then looked down at Ellie's hopeful eyes. "It's mainly the reason why I went to get you out of that jail block. I thought I could spend time with the secret granddaughter, and see if she was worth the trouble of dragging around on all the expeditions he made."

Ellie's eyes shifted down to the ground, taking in what Haytham said.

"Even if you aren't blood, Connor still sees you as family." Haytham then wrapped his arm around Ellie's scrawny shoulders and pressed her side close to his. He wasn't looking at her. Most likely feeling shame of showing so much affection, when he was suppose to be more reserved and gentleman-like.

But, Ellie understood, and patted his hand, that was on her shoulder. "Thanks." She said in a quieted voice.

A while later of waiting for Connor, he finally reappeared, in a new garb. He wore a guard's outfit, with the tricorn black hat, and long pants. He even had a waistcoat on, and a long coat. Ellie almost didn't recognize him from how he looked from afar, but, when he got closer, she could see his familiar facial structure come to light.

"You look handsome!" Ellie admitted.

"No..." Connor was ready to flush to her compliment. "... Just disguise."

"That should suffice." Haytham says, standing up to straight out the front of Connor's coat. "Follow me."

The three walked out of the alley way, and towards the sealed-off area of the streets. They passed the guards with ease, but had to be stopped at the only door that led inside the blocked area.

"It's you!" The guard at the door pointed at Ellie, with a grin. "You, who makes such puns! I remember you." A significant sign that Ellie had his trust. "But, these two," He gestured his hand to Connor and Haytham. "What business do you have here?"

"The Father of Understanding guides us." Haytham said.

His words gave clearance. "_You_, I recognize." The guard nodded once to Haytham. "But, not this savage." He glanced at Connor.

"... He is my son." Haytham expressed in a strong voice, not looking at Connor.

Connor and Ellie looked at Haytham with shocked expressions.

"Tasted the forest fruits, have you?" The guard smirked in a perverted notion to Haytham, chuckling afterwards. "Or, is this a family of mixed breeds?" He glanced at Connor and Ellie, referring to their different skin tones, to Haytham's.

"What a freak..." Ellie whispered to Connor, making a look of disgust on her face, while the guard wasn't looking.

The guard allowed the three entrance, knocking on the strong door and shouted allowance. The door opened up, and the three walked right into the sealed area.

"Cold." Ellie could help but point out, folding her arms.

Connor wrapped his arm around her back and let her stick closer to his side. Haytham looked back to the two, while he walked ahead, and made a smirk to himself.

The three walked a short distance into the sealed area, until they were met by two strong doors, made of sturdy wood, unbreakable. Haytham tried pulling one of the doors opened, only to discover that they were locked tight.

"It's locked." He then went to his pocket to pull out some lockpicking needles. "Give me a moment."

As Haytham attended to the lock in the door, Connor leaned against the wall, with his arms crossed. Ellie took her moment to look around the large brewery storage room they stood in, seeing how high the ceiling was, and how many large, wooden crates and boxes cluttered the walls and spaces.

"Must be strange for you." Connor speaks up, to Haytham. "Discovering my existence, as you have, I mean."

Haytham shrugs to that. "I'm actually curious as to know what your mother might of said about me." The lock to the doors made a click, easing out the hinges holding the doors shut. He stood up, pocketing the lockpicking needles. "I've always wondered what life might have been like, had she and I stayed together."

"Aww." Ellie couldn't help but coo, with a smile. Connor had never once mentioned a detail about his mother to Ellie. She knew he had a mother, but he never spoke of her. She always figured that she was back at the native village, where she never visited.

"How is she, by the way?" Haytham asked Connor.

Connor had a hard glare on his face, with his eyes boiling up with rage. He looked at Haytham in the eye, and answered, "Dead. Murdered."

"What...?" Haytham's eyes grew wide, and his face fell in disbelief. He looked to the ground. "... I'm sorry to hear that."

"Oh, you're sorry?" Connor stood from the wall, now fuming with fury to those words. "I found my mother, burning alive."

Ellie's expression also fell, as she watched Connor begin to raise his voice out of pure hatred.

"I'll _never _forget her face, as she sent me away. _Charles Lee_ is responsible for her death, by _your _order." He pointed furiously at Haytham, still glaring daggers in his sights. "And, you're _sorry_." He gestured his arms up in disapproval.

"... That's impossible." Haytham was still in innermost disbelief. "I gave _no_ such order...! I spoke the opposite, in fact! I told them to give up the search, for the Precursor Site. We were to focus on more practical pursuits-"

"It is _done_." Connor stopped Haytham with a shove to his shoulder, pushing him aside of the doors. "And, I'm all out of forgiveness." He inhaled deeply, sounding ready to give a good swing at Haytham. He balled his hand into a fist at his side, but released, when he remembered Ellie was in the room. He glanced at her, seeing her looking back at him, with an expression full of confusion, disbelief, and something that said she understood. He took her by the wrist and pulled opened the heavy door to walk through, with Ellie at his side.

Ellie didn't look at Haytham. She was too confused onto believing him now.

Inside the main room of the enormous brewery, the ceiling was much higher, astronomically. More crates and boxes piles against the high walls, and dozens of sturdy, solid beams vertically stood from the ground towards the ceiling, holding it up with more beams above. It was also quite dark, due to the decreasing amount of windows not built into the walls. Which was something noted in their minds.

Across the room, standing at a crate that had a lit lantern and an opened journal in front of him, there stood a man that was Benjamin Church.

"Benjamin Church." Haytham spoke up, stopping at a far distance from the man. Connor and Ellie did the same. "You stand, accused of betraying the Templar Order, and abandoning out principles, in pursuit of personal gain. In consideration, I hereby sentence you to death-"

"_Now_!" The man called Benjamin Church turned and shouted at the top of his lungs.

That one-worded command bustled out a handful of mercenaries from hiding, all armed heavily with long guns and blunt weapons readied. The mercenaries surrounded the three immediately. Ellie was startled and hugged Connor's arm, looking at the many mercenaries behind them. She felt Connor put his hand around her with his free arm, keeping her close, as he also looked on at the many guards.

The man called Benjamin Church was _not _Benjamin Church. It was a faker. "You're too late." The faker explained, stepping into the light to expose his face. "Church, and the cargo, are long gone, and I'm afraid you won't be in any condition to follow..."

Ellie looked at the faker. "He's so ugly!" She pointed at him furiously.

The faker gasped in shock at her insult. "_Kill them_!"

The battle with the mercenaries consisted more on bloodshed. More guards jumped from high-topped floors, with the same long rifles. Strong men with giant axes were attacking with more vigorously than before.

Haytham and Connor attacked with the same tactics, but, Haytham used a short sword, that sliced through the chests and limbs of the enemies with ease. Connor used the brutish force of his tomahawk in the faces and heartbeats of the charging mercenaries that tried to take him down. Ellie was still armed with her machete, cutting through the same enemies as if she swung a sword. Her two-handed weapon was more brutal, when she bashed in the guards' faces with the giant blade.

Indeed, she learned brutish strength from Connor. Swift attacks, from Haytham.

The entire battle of more guards pouring in to try stopping the three, the trio could hear the insults and raving of the faker sounding out vengefully.

"Look at the half-breed fight, like a feral dog! Best we put him down, boys!"

"Get him! And, the Indian, too!"

"That one, and his half-breed!"

The insult he shouted at Ellie was, "The newest half-breed fights, just like her feral dog of a father! Slaughter her, like the mutt, she is!"

"_I'm going to fucking slice your fucking face off, asshole_!" Ellie went running after the faker, with the machete in both her hands. "I'm going to whoop your ass, like Clint Eastwood does, in every Western movie!" The faker ran for his life, when he saw the whites of Ellie's eyes burning up in ferocious fire, as she charged at him with her bloodied machete. The front of her clothes were soaked in enemy blood, and her face was also coated in drying blood, as did Haytham's and Connor's.

Ellie was suddenly grabbed at the back of her coat's collar, being thrown back with brute force by a strong man. She flew back to the floor, thudding loudly on her back. The strong man charged at her with a readied axe, about to swing down, when she instantly reacted by pointing out the machete's edge in front of his body, and he accidentally stabbed his chest straight through the giant blade from the uncertain prediction.

"Fucker." Ellie kicked off the body, pulling out the machete blade.

When that strong man was down, Ellie pulled herself up, and panted hard, sheathing the giant blade into her scabbard, that was strapped to her back.

The room was finally settled into stillness once more, once all the guards were fallen dead in shambles. Connor and Haytham still stood, also out of breath of fighting. The faker of Church was on the ground, from tripping over a dead body. He struggled to get up, but was stopped by the hand of Connor's being placed on his back.

Connor knelt down to the faker's side. "Where's Benjamin Church?" He asked.

"I-I'll tell you! Anything you want! Only promise that you'll let me live!" He begged for mercy, while Haytham and Ellie approached Connor's back.

Connor looked up to Haytham for advice. Haytham gave him a shrug of one shoulder, offering to let him stand up the faker.

Picking up the man to his feet, Connor patted the faker's shoulder. "You have my word."

The trembling man began talking. "He left yesterday, for Martinique. Took passage on a trading sloop, called the Welcome. Loaded half its hold, with the supplies he stolen from the Patriots! That's _all _I know, I swear!"

Connor nodded in understanding.

With the information being heard, Haytham paced behind the faker, and decided to end him with a stab in the back, with his hidden blade. The blade pierced through his flesh and bones, into the closed area of his heart, which would kill him instantly.

"You promised..." The faker lastly whimpered, before falling over onto the floor, instantly dead by the one-stab.

"And, he kept his word." Haytham casually said, while cleaning off his blade. Connor looked at him, in utmost disgust, of what he did.

"Let's get the fuck out of here, please." Ellie breathlessly asked, wiping blood off her face with her long sleeve.

Before any of the men could respond to that, they were greeted by another unwelcoming sound of three riflemen entering the fray. The three men stood at the top of the first flight of floors in the brewery, and readied their loaded rifles, aiming at the three.

Connor instantly reacted, grabbing both Ellie and Haytham by the backs of their coats and dragged them behind stacked crates, to take cover.

But, instead of firing at the three, the riflemen aimed at an enormous barrel in the room, and shot fires at the barrel. The giant barrel met the impact, releasing an explosion of hidden explosives and gunpowder inside. The brewery shook like an earthquake to the impacting shock of gunpowder screaming out. The riflemen then ran out of the room, once they saw the sight of orange flames burning through the fallen wood of crates and ruined boxes.

"Holy shit!" Ellie screamed, feeling the agonizing sensation of her ears ringing to the explosion. "Fucking A!"

The trio finally pulled themselves up to their feet, to be met by the sight of the high, wooden wall burning up in engulfing flames.

"We need to get out of here!" Connor shouted.

"You don't say?" Haytham rolled his eyes, already making a head start for a possible climbing escape.

Connor and Ellie followed suit, tracing the same steps Haytham was taking to find a route escape. Climbing up a fallen wall of crumbling wood, crawling up beams to more horizontal beams that held the high ceiling up with so much strength in age. Connor and Ellie could hear the rants of Haytham up ahead, shouting at them to catch up faster, and start moving quicker, before the flames start to grow higher.

Jumping across a far ledge together at the same time, Ellie and Connor made it safety to the other side, but still needed to pursuit out of the hellish building, fast.

When the two ran over a wobbly wooden floor, they both collapsed down into a lower floor, of more orange flames and heat tackling their body with suffocation.

"So close, yet _so_ far! You'll need to find your way around the flames!" Haytham shouted tough love to Connor.

Ellie coughed hard to the taste of smoke in her mouth and throat, still running alongside with Connor to find a route escape.

"You _better_ get that girl out of that fire, or I'm _going_ to leave you in this flare, without her!" Haytham threatened Connor whole-heartedly.

"Marvelous." Connor muttered to himself angrily, running through the untouched grounds with Ellie at his side.

"Get back here, traitors!" The two runners heard Haytham shouting, but, it seemed directed towards someone else above, where he was. "Oh, how I'll enjoy making you pay, for your betrayal!" He continued pursuing the other enemies above, as Ellie and Connor tried climbing up more beams to find their route to the very top of the brewery. "Did Church pay you well?! Did he pay you handsomely?! And, what good does your gold do you now?!"

Connor and Ellie found an untouched wooden wall structure that was taller enough to reach Haytham's location, and started scaling it quickly as they could.

"Is it magic gold, you think? Like the one they spun the fleece from? Do you think it'll shield you from the flames?!"

"Shut the fuck up, father!" Connor couldn't help but scream out.

The two finally made it to the top of the brewery house, finding that Haytham was confronting the three riflemen from before, that started the fire. Ellie and Connor pulled themselves up to the floor, before a giant beam from over Haytham's and the riflemen heads collapsed the spot they were on. Luckily, it did not collapse the entire floor, giving Ellie and Connor a chance to get up onto the flat with their feet.

Connor ran over to the hole of the floor to see if Haytham was still there. Miraculously, he saw that Haytham was hanging only by his hand, onto a ledge of the collapsed floor. He knelt down to grab Haytham's freehand and roughly pull him back up to safety.

Haytham was back up the floor with Ellie and Connor now.

After he dusted off his debris-covered coat, Haytham walked over to a sealed-off door to see if it could be opened.

"Stuck!" Haytham shouted, wanting to swear. "See if you can find something to pry it open." He waited for Connor to respond back, but heard only debris of flames. "Connor?" He shouted his name, turning around to see what he was doing.

"Hold on." Connor told Ellie, as she climbed up onto his back, with her small arms wrapped around his neck.

"Okay." Ellie tightly held onto his shoulders, as he positioned to start charging into the stuck doors.

"Oh, no! Don't!" Haytham tried stopping Connor, with his hands out to try preventing him from impact, standing in front of him. "We don't know what's on the other si-"

_CRASH._

"-IIIIIIIDE!"

Connor, Haytham, and Ellie plummeted into the safety of deep water below the crash Connor charged out of. The three dove into water, feeling the cool, chilled water engulf them, and wash away the heated debris from their bodies. For once, Ellie was glad to be swallowed up in the water she hated so much.

Connor and Haytham burst out of the depths of the water, gasping for air. Ellie was still holding on to Connor's back for dear life, also breathing hard for oxygen.

"We do now!" Connor's only response to Haytham's last words from the fired building.

Haytham just threw a glare at Connor.

"Water! Water!" Ellie wailed in fright. "Get me out of here! Connor!" She panicked, attempting to climb onto the top of his head from the water, like a petrified cat being dipped in icy water.

Connor and Haytham made a hasty retreat for the nearest wall that they climbed up onto. Once they were upon solid surface, Ellie jumped off of Connor's back and shook out her sleeves and pant-legs of water, as the others did the same.

"Church is, at least, a day ahead of us." Haytham exhaled lightly. "We must move quickly, if we are to catch him."

"I have a ship we can use." Connor announced, surprising Haytham and Ellie. "Meet us at the pier, when you're ready." Connor started marching off, with Ellie following suit.

**Longest chapter, but full of fun and dynamic moments. I hope this isn't too much to read for ya'll. Lol.**

**More to come soon, in the next chapter!**


	8. Save Rock And Roll

**[Captain Connor]**

Boarding a ship was something entirely new to Ellie. She had never experienced the drive of being amongst one of life's greatest creations, made by man. Only from looking at pirate ships from pictures in novels and illustrated posters, she had never once believed in the idea of them being as wide as the famous towering skyscrapers in New York or Pittsburgh, in her own era.

But now, standing aboard the large ship, and watching the face of the mother-load crash through the heavy currents of ocean tides and sailing fast towards the island of Martinique ahead, Ellie couldn't stop bouncing around, hyperactive, by the ship's movements onto the deep waters of the ocean face. The island colors ahead riveted with neon, brighter lights of green, red, rocks and sand. The strong scent of the water underneath the ship's body filled her nostrils everyday they travelled forth to Martinique, and she enjoyed every bit of it. Of everything.

"Have you been on ship before, lass?" Robert Faulkner, an older man of the ship, that had taught Connor onto taming the sea with the massive vessel, asked Ellie, as she stood nearby the large steering wheel of the entire ship itself. Faulkner was steering the ship himself.

"No, never..." Ellie admitted. "This is so fucking cool, though!" She shouted in all hyperactive excitement, running down the steps from the cockpit to the deck, running to the long, connected ropes of the ship, that led straight up the bird's nest. She saw a pirate climbing up the ropes, towards the nest. "I want to climb up, too! I want to see everything from there!"

"Ellie!" She heard Connor shout her name from the cockpit. She looked over his direction.

Connor was at the steering wheel of the ship now, reappearing with his hands on the handles, and keeping control. His outfit was entirely new, from what she usually saw him wear as normal. The outfit he wore was entirely captain worth. Blue, long coat, with pointed tails. A signified blue pirate hat on his head. His garb was black underneath, with a white waistcoat. His boots were blackened from age, but it didn't matter, because it matched wonderfully.

"Do not climb to the bird's nest just yet." He warned her. "I want you by my side."

Ellie walked back to the cockpit of the ship, with a surprised look on her face. "Are you a captain?" She asked him, grabbing at the long, fitted sleeve of Connor's long coat and tugged at it, as if she were testing to see if it were real. "You've got to be fucking with me... No way!" She shoved him in the arm.

Connor made a laugh to that. "... I do not joke." He answered with a voice shot up in confidence.

"Whoa!" Ellie exaggerated in excitement. "That's fucking awesome!"

"Someone's proud." Faulkner couldn't help but say, seeing how Ellie's eyes were gleaming brightly at Connor.

Ellie and Connor high-fived each other. "Hell yeah!" Ellie shouted, overwhelmingly proud of Connor at the moment. "Owning this sea, like a badass."

"Huuh?" Connor became bewildered. "_Badass_?" He repeated the said word, sounding utterly flabbergasted by the new slang.

"Oh." Ellie chuckled to Connor's confusion. "Where I'm from, back on land, it's a compliment. It means you're completely and totally spectacular, in every way."

Connor thought a moment to the word, nodding his head after a while later. "Then, I suppose I am badass."

"_Yeah_!"

* * *

**[Save The Rock and Roll]**

Arriving to the island of Martinique, the beautiful land was lush with greenery and life. Sea gulls flew overhead of the ship's sails, following suit. Connor still steered the ship, with Faulkner next to his side. On his opposing side, Haytham and Ellie watched on as the ship drove closer to the tall, towering rocks of Martinique's domain, sailing into the split entrance to find the Welcome.

"I told you this was a poor heading!" Haytham shouted in irritation, to Connor. "Church is surely days ahead of us!"

"Have some faith in the boy!" Faulkner defended Connor. "He's yet to disappoint!"

"Psh." Haytham couldn't help but scoff. "Well, the bar's not been set very high now, has it?"

"We are closer than you think, _father_!" Connor retorted in a shout.

Ellie kept her eyes ahead of the ship's face, while standing next to Haytham. She was frightened by the idea of Connor unable to steer correctly, as he begun to lead the ship into the opening of Martinique's domain. It was a large valley of mountain walls on both sides of the large ship's space, as it carefully drove itself into the row.

As a shadow of a mountain's height casted over the vessel, Connor shouted out, "Deploy to half-sail!"

"Deploy to half-sail!" Faulkner repeated Connor's demand to the other pirates on deck.

Ellie looked up to the enormous sails above her head, watching how the ropes to the half-sail deployed quickly, in a split-second, as the back sails were immediately drawn back. The pirates above head were keeping excellent track of Connor's every command. The reduced number of sails opened gave the ship a more calming sail through the ocean's valley through the Martinique walls.

"Connor!" Ellie shouted towards Connor. "After we get done with this whole war and all, can you teach me how to sail?" It was a bold thing to ask, for someone as young as Ellie was, to want to man a vessel as large as the Aquila.

But, she saw Connor nod firmly. "After all this, I will teach you how to man a vessel."

The ship passed through the valley with ease, nearing an opened area of deeper water, but much more space to bear the Aquila's body out of.

"Ship, ho!" A pirate hollered out, once the Aquila was out of the valley. He pointed directly across the clearing, towards what seemed to be a parked pirate ship, that was nestled next to land.

"Is it the Welcome?" Connor shouted.

"Aye! And, she's dropped anchor!" The look-out responded.

"Take us in, for a closer look, son!" Haytham said towards Connor, before Connor did as he was asked, and started steering the ship towards the Welcome.

"Here, lass." Faulkner roughly pushed his knuckles against Ellie's shoulder, to get her attention. He handed her a long coat. "I've a feelin' of somethin' eerie awaitin' us."

Ellie took the jacket, slipping it on. It was a pirate's long coat, in her own size. It was a light brown coat, that was in the same design as Connor's, but will black linings and buttons. The tails of her coat touched down to the calves of her legs. She didn't care of how it looked, as she never did with her other clothes. She just wondered if it were some sort of wear for protection. The sleeves fitted over her slim arms well, as did the body of the coat around her torso.

The Aquila was brought in close to the side of the Welcome, finding that the ship's deck was emptied of no pirate soul in sight. The sails were all rolled up and tied, and gulls flocked the bird's nest as their newest domain.

"It seems that the ship has been abandoned..." Connor examined the Welcome's deck with his eyes, as Haytham and Ellie did the same.

"Church always was a slippery bastard." Haytham looked on at the emptied ship in disappoint.

A moment later of a shortened look-on, a pirate screamed out, "Enemy, ahead!"

On the other side of the clearing, hiding behind a mountain wall of the Martinique's structure, appeared a different pirate ship of some sort. It's sails were all opened, and aiming to start driving out of the clearing, sailing away from the Aquila.

Connor immediately reacted, hollering out for all sails to open, as he started steering the wheel to the enemy ship's direction as fast as he could. The sails picked up large amounts of wind in their grasps, as they started pushing the vessel forth out of the clearing, and into a larger opening of the Martinique, where the enemy ship was quacking making it's get-away from the Aquila. Keeping all sails opened, Connor madly, and boldly, drove the ship into the rocky clearing of blockers and watery boulders.

"This is awesome!" Ellie shouted out in excitement.

"Rogue winds!" A pirate screamed out as warning, as the throes of wind began to fight back against the Aquila's picked speed.

Connor roughly turned the ship to the left, throwing some of his pirate crewmen to the right-side of the deck from the force. Faulkner kept his hold onto the ship, as well as Haytham. Ellie was so astonished at the moment of the chase, she forgot to hang on for dear life to the ship. She tumbled over her feet, prepared to land on her back, when Haytham immediately caught her in the loop of his arm.

"_How is it_ that you want to teach her how to man a ship, giving the way _you_ sail?!" Haytham screamed at Connor, before pushing Ellie back up to her feet.

The entire chase consisted on precise coordination, and Connor was wildly steering the ship like a madman. Even if he could evade the boulders coming into view, he was still steering the ship roughly enough to toss-and-turn the crew and the rest on the cockpit. Either way, Connor would not let a dozen of cliffs and blockers keep him from his goal of capturing Church and retrieving the rest of the stolen cargo upon the enemy ship.

Once they were through the barricades of boulders and rocks behind, the enemy ship had made it pass through a different valley of mountain walls, that the Aquila's body could not bear to go through alone.

"She's passing between the cliffs, boy!" Faulkner shouted to Connor, pointing to where the enemy ship was disappearing behind the mountain walls. "The Aquila's too big to follow! We need to go around!" He directed towards a much more wider opening that opposed the cliffs the enemy ship retreated behind.

Connor steered the ship hard to the opposing side.

"Goddammit! We're going to lose him!" Haytham screamed in utmost frustration.

"What other choice have we?! Those rocks would crush us!" Faulkner shouted back at Haytham, also becoming irritated by the intense chase.

The Aquila made its way around the cliffs the enemy ship retreated into, to meet it on the other side of a more opened clearing, with lesser barricades of rocks and boulders. An opened sea, it felt like. When the Aquila passed the cliffs, the booming sounds of enemy canons blasting through the air screamed out. Accompanying the enemy ship were smaller battleships of medium-forms of pirate ships, firing blasts of canon balls at the Aquila.

Canon balls hit the side of the Aquila, making the vessel shake hard to the impact.

"Down!" Connor screamed out.

The crewmen fell down onto the deck floor to cover, as well as Ellie, Connor and Haytham did. Canon balls flew overhead, and Ellie shifted her head up to watch the firing go on for the short moment of their time. When the firing stopped, Connor stood straight back up, with his hands on the steering wheel, and started driving the ship towards the battleships closing into him.

"Ready our weapons! Prepare to return fire!" Connor screamed at the regrouping crewmen below on deck, as they scrambled to man the canons that were readied for launch.

Once a battleship closed in to the Aquila, Connor pointed at the ship, and screamed to the top of his lungs, "_Fire_!"

The canons of the Aquila launched out canon balls, in hyper speed. They littered the battleship's body with impact, immediately sending the ship down to wreck. The crewmen cheered in success of their first battleship going down, as they regrouped the canons to reload and wait for their marks.

"Church is using the ambush as distraction to escape! Sink him, before he escapes! Send that _fucker_ to the sea floor!" Haytham ordered at Connor, with the new profanity in his language, courtesy of Ellie's influence.

"No!" Connor declined loudly. "I need his ship afloat! The cargo must be saved!"

Before Faulkner could make a statement, the ship shook to the intense force of Connor accidentally driving over a drowned boulder at the bottom of the vessel. Faulkner fell backwards from the shaking, and Ellie decided to run to Connor's opposing side to see the battle upon sea more clearly on a better stand-point. There were two battleships left of protecting the mother-load, and the enemy ship was still close by, to watch the Aquila being pummeled with canon balls.

"Ellie!" Connor shouted at Ellie, while making a hard turn to his left with the steering wheel. "Make the mark!" He shouted in desperation.

Ellie made a shocked look on her face at Connor, before she looked back to a closed-in battleship that looked prepared to fire right back at them.

Immediately, mimicked Connor's retaliation, she threw her hand out to the battleship and screamed, "_Fire, dammit_!"

With her high-pitched voice screaming the order, the pirates obeyed, and launched canon balls at the battleship's body. With the handful of canons tearing down the battleship's sails and body, the battleship immediately wrecked and went down.

"Good job!" Connor shouted to Ellie.

"This is intense!" Ellie responded back in a shout, holding onto the wooden-rail of the ship with both her small hands, still shaking in utmost excitement.

"You don't say?!" Haytham chimed in finally, grabbing Ellie by the back of her coat jacket's collar and dragged her back to his side. "Get back here, to cover!"

Once the battleship was down, Connor went about to easily take down the final battleship in their way.

Now, they went for the enemy ship that carried their main target of the day.

Firing more blasts of cannon balls at the ship, that they saw called Man-Of-War, the Aquila was easily taking down the Man-Of-War with ease, landing hard shots at the sails and crashing down more of the ships bodied canons and men.

The sight of the Man-Of-War's sails going down, from the piercing sounds of ropes snapping from straining, and crewmen scrambling to desperately regroup their weapons, it was enough to convince Connor to start shouting the newest order to his own crewmen.

"Men! Prepare to board-"

He was cut off short from his command, when Haytham suddenly ran up to him, and grabbed him by the shoulders, throwing him aside from the steering wheel. Connor tumbled to the railing of the ship, grabbing hold of the wood. He then turned and looked at Haytham.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Connor screamed at Haytham in confusion of his actions.

"Ending this!" Haytham hissed loudly, as he professionally begun turning the steering wheel fully to the left, aiming for the halted Man-Of-War's side.

Ellie ran to Connor side, pulling him up to stand. "Just bear with me!" Ellie shouted, before pulling him away from the railing, once the sight of the Man-Of-War's battleship side came into view, and the Aquila's side collided with it.

The sharp sound of wood connecting to destroyed rubble screeched out, making the Aquila deck shake violently to the impacting force of its side grinding against battleship. The crewmen stumbled and fell onto the deck. Connor and Ellie kept up their positions to stand straight, as Ellie held up Connor by balancing him with her hands on his side.

The Aquila came to a dramatic halt finally, stopping neck-to-neck with the Man-Of-War. Once it stopped, Haytham ran straight to the railing of the ship, to hop onto, and jump straight towards the other ship quickly.

* * *

**[Father Madness]**

"Kicking open!" Ellie screamed out, over the crowded invaded ship of the Man-Of-War. She stood in front of the double-doors, that led down to the deck floors below, and kicked them in with a hard shove of her foot into the locked doors. She then ventured downstairs into the darkness of the dimly lit deck floor. She went to find Haytham and his hereabouts, while she decided to search for Benjamin Church as well, in the process.

Sheathing her freshly bloodied machete in her scabbard, she ventured further into the depths of the ship, only to be met in the ears by the sounds of a voice echoing throughout the wooden rooms and cabin-like halls.

"So, here we are, face-to-face, at last, my friend." The voice clearly belonged to Haytham's, as he sounded to confront the very man he had searched for hours for. "It's been quite an adventure - let me tell you - working my way, through your nasty little tricks and traps! Clever, some of them, anyway! I'll give you credit for that! And, for the quietude, with which you pulled it off!"

Haytham voice was astonishingly raised to a screaming tone, to which Ellie had yet to experienced with her ears. It sounded twisted and boiled with dismay or Haytham's once-friend betraying him, in such an unpredictable way, that would scar him for ions to come. As Ellie walked further through the wooden hallways and high ceilings, she could hear his shouts and screams closing in.

"We had a _dream_, Benjamin! A dream, you sought out to _destroy_! And, for that, my _fallen_ friend, you will be made to _pay_!"

The words he screamed were full of heart break, and Ellie could hear it in the tone of voice he used.

She arrived to the double doors of the captain's room, and was about to push them open, when she suddenly heard the piercing sounds of knuckles meeting teeth. The sharp noises of teeth crackling, and blood splattered onto the wooden floor, made Ellie pull her hand back from the door handles, and back up in fright.

Her back bumped into someone behind her. Ellie looked over her shoulder, and saw that it was Connor. She looked at Connor with hopeful, yet frightened, eyes. Connor put his hand over her head and brushed her bangs aside, as a comfort of telling her _it was all right_, before he pulled back to approach the double doors to shove them open.

Inside the room, the two saw Haytham, kneeling down on his knee, and drilling sharp punches down on the broken, bloodied face of a helpless Benjamin Church, laying on the floor on his back, unwillingly taking in Haytham's disgust for him. Haytham's teeth clutched together hard as he continued plummeting his knuckles down into Church's face relentlessly. Even to the sounds of the double doors opening, Haytham wouldn't stop damaging Church as he was.

"... Oh, shit." Ellie fearfully stood next to Connor, watching Haytham wailing on Church.

"Enough...!" Connor shouted, sounding as if he were not phased by the sight of his father bruising another man violently. Haytham heard Connor, from his short killer's trance, and exhaled heavily. "We came here for a reason." Connor stepped into the room.

"_Different _reasons, it seems." Haytham lastly hissed in Benjamin Church's face, before delivering one more punch into his face. He dropped Benjamin Church from his freehand and stood up, shaking his bloodied hand as he stepped aside for Connor's turn in interrogating the injured man.

Ellie looked at Haytham, with her eyes still showing sign of fright in them, and something of worry. She glanced down at Haytham's bloodied hand, and could see how some of the skin on his knuckles had scrapped off and also started showing specks of blood forming from the broken skin marks. But, the rest of his back hand, knuckles, and fingers were soaked in Benjamin Church's own blood.

Haytham shook his pained hand once more, before quickly glancing over at Ellie, noticing that she was staring at him.

"You alright?" He asked her breathlessly.

"Define alright." She shrugged her arms, speaking in an unsure voice.

Haytham shrugged one shoulder. "Not dead?" He answered.

"Psh." Ellie scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I'm fine. _You're_ not."

Haytham shook his head to that. "No. I'm fine." He assured her, with a smile on his face. "Well, _now_, I'm fine, since I've dealt out my feelings to that bastard." He hissed at Benjamin's direction, before returning back to Ellie with a soft look on his face.

After Connor gave his final words to the collapsed body of the dead Benjamin Church in his native tongue, Haytham and Ellie stood next to him, looking down at Church's body. They took a moment of silence for just a mere second to give to Church.

Haytham put his hand on Connor's shoulder. "You did well." He looked at Connor, patting his shoulder as assurance. "His passing was a boon for us both." He then looked to Ellie, and then, back to Connor. "Come on, you two. I expect you would want my help, retrieving everything from the island?" He said, as he started out the opened doors.

**_"You are what you love, not who loves you... In a world, full of the word yes, I'm here to scream... No! No! Where ever I go, trouble seems to follow. I'm only plugged in, to save rock and roll! No! No! Where ever I go, trouble seems to follow. I'm only plugged in, to save rock and roll!"_ (Fall Out Boy's "Save Rock and Roll").**

**I hope this came out well, because I'm STILL going to write more! Enjoy! :)**

**More to come, in the next chapter!**


	9. Not Going To Die

**[Humble Farewell]**

"Oh, I'm going to miss you, you rapscallion!" Haytham couldn't help but squeeze Ellie tightly in his embrace, while he was knelt down to her height.

Ellie also hugged him back, as it was out of her character to do, but she did, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

The trio finished their retrieving-mission of taking back the stolen goods from Martinique, and sending them back to Valley Forge. The three now stood outside of the entrance of New York. Connor and Haytham did not say their farewells to each other, for Connor planned to come back to New York by nightfall. But, Ellie had wanted to go back to the homestead and see Achilles, for she missed him as well. It also meant she would not attend their next mission.

"You sure you don't want to come back by nightfall?" Haytham tried changing Ellie's mind once more. "It'll be quite boring, without all those painfully bad jokes you've got up your sleeves."

Ellie laughed to that, before scoffing, with a roll of her eyes. "My legs are ready to break, and I want to see Achilles. He's probably worried about me." Ellie looked up to Connor, who stood at her side. "Besides, you two should have some quality father-and-son time together, without me in the middle." She smiled at Connor.

Connor nodded down to her. He looked back to Haytham. "I will be back soon." He lastly said to him, and Haytham gave him a nod. "Ready to depart?" Connor patted Ellie's shoulder once with his hand.

"Ready when you are."

* * *

**[The Ride Back Home]**

On the trails, farther from the peek of New York, Connor and Ellie were on horseback, riding their back home to the homestead. Connor steered the horse, while Ellie sat behind him, with her small arms around his stomach, and resting the side of her head on his back. She was remotely tired out from the adventures out in New York and sea, and was ready to take a long, long rest back at the homestead. Of course, Connor still had unfinished business to attend to, back in New York, and had to return by nightfall.

But, he wanted to return back to the homestead, in need of telling Achilles something important.

"Hey, Connor." Ellie said Connor's name, adjusting her arms around him. "I had a weird dream a few nights ago I wanted to tell you about."

Connor raised his eyebrows, in interest of her dream talk. "What of?"

"Well," Ellie thought back far through her memory of the distorted dream. "I had a dream that you and I were on this pirate ship, that was _flying _through the sky. The captain of the ship was some guy named Edward, and he was dressed up like an Assassin, too. We were heading for a castle in the sky called Eternal, and... right before we started firing canon shots at the place, I woke up..." She made a heavy sigh to the reoccurring memory. "It's weird... I don't know who that Edward-guy was, either. But, he looked a lot like you and Haytham."

"Psh." Connor chuckled, looking over his shoulder at Ellie. "Perhaps you should wish for better dreams."

"Yeah. I guess so." Ellie looked on at the frozen pastures to her right, watching as the sun was beginning to dawn.

"Perhaps you should take a rest." Connor suggested, as he felt Ellie's head resting on his back once more.

"I'm not tired." Ellie lied, trying to silently yawn to herself.

A good hour later, Ellie was dead asleep on Connor's back, as they continued forth to the homestead area. She laid heavy on his back, snoring softly.

It was long after a few hours to the afternoon that they had reached the homestead. Connor shook Ellie awake, as they were now standing in front of the homestead's front. Both jumped off the horse's back, and walked up the porch steps to the front door. The front door was unlocked, as always, and the two stepped inside of the homestead.

Ellie shut the door behind her with her foot, and followed Connor's back, to the study, where she could hear the scratching sounds of a feather pen writing down on paper. Connor pushed off his hood, as he usually did, once he was inside the homestead.

As predicted, Achilles was in his study, sitting at his desk, writing down some things on paper.

Connor stepped into the doorway of the study, and knocked on the wall, as he always did. Achilles heard, and lifted his head up.

"Welcome back." Achilles greeted Connor, unbeknownst to Ellie hiding right behind Connor's back, to surprise him. "And, how was Martinique?"

"Achilles!" Ellie shouted Achilles name, jumping out from behind Connor's back, with her arms up in the air, as a dramatic entrance.

Achilles was startled, looking back up to see Ellie standing next to Connor. "Well, stars and garters!" Achilles was in the utmost of surprise, as Ellie ran up to him with her arms opened, and embraced him hard. "I thought you had met your own demise, girl!" He also hugged her back, still in shock, as he patted her back. "Connor told me of your imprisonment in the teen-lunatic ward, and that you had gone missing. I had thought you had not made it to see another day..."

"It's good to see you!" Ellie pulled back to say. "I thought I would be dead, too!"

Ellie stood up straight, stepping aside to Achilles' side, to let Connor have his go to speak.

"Achilles, I... I owe you an apology." Connor said in a voice full of regret. Achilles and Ellie looked on at Connor, to continue on. "It was wrong of me to say the things I did."

Achilles thought for a moment of what Connor said, with his eyes shifted down to the floorboards, until he looked back to him. "Your words _were _harsh, Connor. But, there was also truth there." Achilles felt Ellie pat her hand on his shoulder as comfort. "I failed the Order, allowing the Templars to take control..."

"But, now their hold is weakened! Which makes me think we still have a chance for peace!" Connor's sudden burst of change made Achilles blink in more surprise. "Imagine what might be accomplished, if we were to unite!" His new enthusiasm also made Ellie blink in shock, for she had never seen this out of him before.

"Why the change of heart?" Achilles asked, adjusting himself in his chair. "Where is this coming from?" He studied Connor's eyes for a moment, long before he could come up with the remarkable answer to himself. "You've met your _father_, haven't you?" He asked, pulling himself up from his chair.

"I do not claim to trust the man, nor even _like_ him." Connor pointed out, just making them sure of his feelings towards Haytham. "But... I would be remiss to ignore this opportunity."

Achilles nodded in understanding to Connor's feelings, but, he was still unsure himself. "Haytham may listen, but, will he understand?"

"Even he must admit that we do well together, than alone." Connor exclaimed, in utmost confidence of working alongside Haytham for the minimum time of his trail back.

"I assume you are going to find him, then?" Achilles asked.

"Yes." Connor nodded. "I leave for New York." He then glanced to Ellie. "Ellie is going to be staying back this time."

"Too much excitement, not enough rest." Ellie answered her reason of staying back, with a shrug of her shoulders.

* * *

**[Reoccurrence]**

Staying back this time at the Davenport Homestead, Ellie finally had a hot bath and threw on a new batch of clothes. After her hair had dried out, Achilles had given her a new tie for her ponytail. It was a traditional ribbon men used in the Colonial age, but only few, since the development of regular hair ties had begun to birth. She wore it, though, just because she wanted to try something new in her hair. She cared less of her hairstyles. But, if it were a gift, then she cared.

Her hair was in a red ribbon, that had a traditional ribbon-bow. It held her ponytail very well, as strong as a regular hair tie did. She still kept her bangs free, and parted. Her new batch of clothes were similar to her first outfit of Colonial boy clothes, except her waistcoat was fitted and longer, enough to cover her waist. She wore longer pants that covered her legs. She still had the fitted Colonial dress shirt underneath, that had sleeves that tenderly wrapped around her slim arms.

Since the arrival back to the homestead, there had been a hired caretaker. The caretaker was there to watch over Achilles, for his health had begun to deteriorate since their disappearance. He was still able to move about normally, but he mostly had to take much more naps and rests than ever before. And, he hated napping too much. Ellie could even see him in comedic agony, whenever the caretaker made him soups and recipes to give to him for his health. She was a good caretaker, but a terrible cook.

Ellie mostly stayed indoors to watch over Achilles as well, while playing with the caretaker's pet dog that she brought with her.

Ellie had excitedly told Achilles of everything that happened to her, while she was in the cities of Boston and New York. She told him about her imprisonment in the ward, and then, being pardoned by Haytham Kenway, and having to stay with him the long week of awaiting Connor's jail release.

From how she spoke about Haytham so fondly of his stoical stature, Achilles also concluded in his mind that Ellie had put full trust in Haytham.

"Achilles!" Ellie ran to Achilles' room the next morning, with an opened novel in her hands. "Achilles, what does this mean-"

"Hush, child!" The caretaker hissed in a whisper at Ellie. In Achilles' room, the elder was sleeping deeply in his slumber, in bed. The caretaker was in the room to throw on a second blanket over his body, warming him from the Winter chills on the outside of the homestead.

Ellie backed up quickly from the doorway of the bedroom and slammed the novel shut. She set it down on a table in the hallway, and tried thinking of something else to do in her time, while she waited for Achilles' to wake up.

She then decided to go out to the woods and hunt some rabbits or elk, with her archery set. Strapping on the full-quiver and bow to her back, and also arming herself with her scabbard that held her machete, to her belt, she went out the front door quietly, and departed for the woods, nearby the homestead.

"Where'd you go?" Ellie armed herself with her bow and arrow, spotting a running figure of an elk running passed the homestead, and into the woods. She ran straight for the woods as planned, and started fanning out to find the refuging elk. "Fast..." Ellie whispered to herself, while still hearing the sounds of the wild elk's hooves scrapping along the hardened, snowy grounds up ahead. It seemed hyperactive, to something startling it.

Ellie only figured that she was the one that startled it, and proceeded on forth to find the creature. Unbeknownst to her knowledge, Ellie was venturing farther from home, than usual.

"Are you feeling lucky, punk...?" Ellie quoted Clint Eastwood to herself, when she heard the sound of the elk stopping at its tracks to eat some frozen grass. She peeked her head around a tall tree she hid behind and saw the elk standing a good distance away from her hiding spot. Ellie readied an arrow, aiming straight at the bowed head of the elk, that was still eating grass. "Well, do ya? Punk?" She was about to fire, when...

_BAM!_

A blunt force collided to the side of her head violently, sending her flying to her side, dropping her bow and arrow in the prospect.

"Augh!" Ellie wailed out, in a delirious, and petrified, state.

Her body hit the snow-covered ground with a thud, and she could feel the immediate presence of being circled by taller statures of men. She couldn't focus straight, with the sharp, shooting pain of the impact pulsing in her new, bloodied wound at the side of her head. She weakly opened her eyes slightly, to the sight of two shadowy figures standing in a circle around her.

"Shit!" One of the men shouted. "Charles didn't say this was a kid!" He sounded completely horrified with himself. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"No fucking turning back now, yeah?" Another man shouted at him, grabbing the hickory axe-handle out of his hand, and gripped it tightly in his own bare hands. "I want that gold he's offerin' to cough up. Killin' a kid for it? No problem." He drove down the end of the axe handle into Ellie's stomach, making her cough out hard to the impact. She then felt the handle golf straight across her face, leaving a red bruise on her right-cheek. The force was enough to turn her over to her side.

"Stop it, Fred!" The refusing man shoved at the attacked named Fred. "We can't do this! She's a fucking child! Charles-"

"Charles, _nothing_!" Fred screamed, raising his voice higher the more the protesting man tried stopping him. Fred slammed down the axe-handle in Ellie's stomach once more, before belting her upper-body with more slams and punches of the handle bruising her with every hit, and making her bleed in the process. "Goddamit! She ain't dying!" Fred screamed in frustration at Ellie's still kicking spirit. "Give you a few more whacks to the head, and that'll-"

"Here!" The other man screamed out finally, pulling out a blade from his back pocket. "This... This'll stop the fucking madness." He looked down at Ellie's bloodied face. "Sorry." He lastly said, before violently driving down the blade straight through her stomach.

Ellie's eyes snapped open to the sharpened pain drilling in her stomach, and she let out the bloody murder through her screams. The air in her lungs were kicked out, and trails of tears were streaming down her face. Her vision made a flash of white, almost seeing her own life flashing before her eyes in a split-second. She let out a grunt when she felt the blade pull out of her stomach fast, and her body finally felt still on the snow-covered ground, that was now melting under her forming pool of blood underneath of her shallow-breathing body.

The two assailants made a dash out of her sights, likely going to escape the woods. She couldn't breathe correctly. She couldn't focus her vision correctly. Her limbs went weak from struggling to stay alight, and were now slump from tiredness. As well as her body.

Feeling the heating warmth of blood pouring out of her deep wound in her stomach, dripping down onto the snow, she was suddenly seeing strange flares of white glass surrounding her. It was as if the world around her was beginning to transition into artificial, solid white. She could hear the strange noises of ringing in her ears, that sounded as if life was beginning to pull her straight out of where she was.

Before the transition could engulf her, Ellie's senses were waken by the sounds of a dog barking from a distance. When the barking was heard, the floating glass shards and white transition had ran away into the wind. She saw the same woods and branches above her body again, and seeing the start of snowfall beginning to slowly, and softly, fall down from the frozen sky. She then made a hard inhale, when the touch of a dog's snout pushed against her immobile hand.

Ellie looked to her left, with her eyes, and saw that it was the caretaker's dog.

"William." Ellie said the dog's name, weakly in pain. "... William."

Hearing his name being said, William barked and wagged his tail happily, jumping around where he stood.

Ellie took a big gulp as she turned her head to the dog, feeling pain pinching at the back of her neck. She grunted to the sensation. "William...!" Ellie said the dog's name a third time, panting. "... Go get Martha." Ellie commanded William, saying the caretaker's name. "Get Martha. Get help. Go...!"

William, a witty dog, knew exactly what Ellie was commanding him to do. Hearing the familiar word, "go", made him immediately dash off the same way Ellie entered the woods, as he barked madly towards the homestead.

Ellie wanted to lay there and wait for Martha, but, she was also worried William would forget the command. She waited a good five minutes, until she was sure that she could start moving. Ellie looked up at a tree trunk she laid next to, and decided to use it to pull herself up.

When she grabbed the thick sides of the trunk, and gripped tightly, Ellie thought back to the dilemma of when Joel was impaled through the back and stomach of the hollowed pipe sticking from the ground, back at the research lab of Colorado, back in her era. She kept telling herself that if Joel could last a long time through an impalement, then she could survive through a stab in the stomach.

To the count of three, Ellie roughly, and quickly, started to force herself to stand up, with the help of using the tree trunk as support. She screamed bloody murder while trying to get up, feeling the pressure boiling in her wounded stomach. But, after a quick effort of pulling herself up, Ellie was right back on her feet, standing in an awkward position, because of her stomach's agonizing pain keeping her hunched over, and her torso tilted to the left slightly, as she held her stomach with one hand.

Her mouth spilled out blood, as she started to make some steps forward, towards the same trail William took to run back home. She spat blood out, and made a hiss sound, when she felt the jabbing pain of her cheek firing up. She felt dizzy, from the blood loss, but she wasn't planning to go down just yet.

Ellie just tried to keep the pain out of her mind, as much as she could, by thinking back of some songs in her head. Ellie kept her eyes ahead of the clear trail of snow and rows of trees leading her out the woods. But, it felt so far gone, Ellie worried it would take longer to keep walking. She kept up her balance by putting her freehand on upcoming tree trunks that she slowly limped past, as she hugged her other arm around her bloodied stomach.

Before Ellie could think of something else to keep her mind occupied from the pain, she heard the sounds of William's barking approaching the woods once more.

"What is it, William?" Martha's voice asked William, as she chased after the hyperactive dog.

"Good dog..." Ellie lastly mumbled to herself, before falling over to her side, back onto the snow. She blacked out after her body thudded against the ground.

* * *

**[Crash And Fall]**

"Fucking A!" Ellie shouted out, slamming her fist down onto the table she laid upon.

Downstairs in the basement area, Martha and Achilles attended to Ellie's large gash in her stomach.

They had to sew in thick layers of stitches into her skin, to close up the wound. Since she was in the time period where medicine was unreal, Ellie had to deal with the enduring pain in her stomach the hard way.

Her bruises from the beatings on her shoulders, upper-arms, and large scratches were something able to be mended to easily. The large bruise forming on her cheek was patched with a thick square of cloth, dabbed in alcohol to fry the pain out. She mostly had blood painted on her face, that was soon cleaned off to reveal the scratches on her face as well. Red marks decorated the skin of her neck and jaw deeply.

But, on one bright side, she still had her teeth.

After the entire ordeal of mending to Ellie, she explained to Achilles about the assailants that attack her in the woods.

Right away, Achilles knew that it were hired-men to kill Ellie, on behalf of Charles and his payment.

"I would inform Connor of this news, but, it appears that he will be gone a few more weeks, longer than usual. He's been called to help out to stop another red coats invasion, in Monmouth." Achilles told Ellie, as she was helped to walk to a cot with Martha's help. "I'll give letter to him, and send a runner to deliver the word of Charles' attempted murder."

Ellie didn't say too much of anything. The entire ordeal of the attack made her drop silent. She laid down on the cot on her back, while Martha pulled up a blanket over her body. Ellie gave a small nod to Martha, as a sign of gratitude. Martha nodded back, before walking off to the staircase.

"Rest, child." Achilles patted the side of Ellie's head softly. "You're stronger than you think."

Since the attempted murder, Ellie had stayed in bed most of the time. But, she hated the idea of staying in one place, and would occasionally try getting herself up onto her feet. Her cot was downstairs in Connor's basement, so, she would mostly have the time to herself in trying to walk again. The first few days were troubling, until she began to start feeling strong enough to mobile at the second week. Sharp pain still shot through her stomach every time she walked, but, Ellie wasn't going to sit around.

But, most of the time she was found up, Martha would have to tell her to get back into bed or sit down, for the forming and rising bruise in Ellie's stitched stomach was starting to turn. Of course, Ellie would never listen to Martha. When Martha was attending to Achilles, Ellie was up once more, walking around with a hard time, and trying to get her bearings once again.

Ellie began to wonder if this was how Joel felt, when he had to walk around with a giant gap in his own stomach. In Winter time, when he forced himself up out of bed, to search for her whereabouts in the cannibal-infested town, did he feel a lot of pain, but wanted to gain the strength back to find her once again? If Joel was able to pull himself together, after weeks of resting on one mattress, then Ellie wanted to get herself up and regain strength again, just like he did.

"Shit." Ellie was up one night, sitting at the desk of Connor's planning table, reading a Grimm's Brother tale to herself. "Red Riding Hood, you idiot." Ellie clicked her tongue. "How can you not know that it's the wolf in your grandma's clothes?!" She slammed the novel shut and placed it on the table surface. Carefully pulling herself up to her feet, Ellie limped back to the cot with a heavy sigh, feeling tired.

For three weeks of Connor not returning back home, Ellie worried sick for his safety out on the war in Monmouth. She wanted to be there and help, but, in her own condition at the moment, she couldn't do much, until he made his return back to the homestead.

With the candle lights blown out in the basement, Ellie went back to the cot and covered herself up. She remained laying on her back, with her arms folded over her stomach. She fell asleep, after a few minutes of laying there and thinking of Connor's well-being in Monmouth.

Only after two hours of sleeping, Ellie felt something on her face. It felt like something of the palm of someone's hand over the side of her head's temple. It felt like a tender comfort of someone brushing the flat of their palm over her bangs, brushing them to the side. She heard nothing from the person, but, she knew it wasn't Martha or Achilles. This person's hand felt rough and almost foreign, but, something oddly familiar about it made Ellie's mind reel for correction on the identity.

Ellie opened her eyes, and looked to her side. She saw no one.

Until she woke up the next morning, to find two dead men on the floor of the basement. It seemed that their throats were slashed with a blade.

**_"And, we never feel safe alone. Need a spiritual shotgun, to cover our souls, and to keep out the dark. We're a light, without batteries. A match, with no spark, but we're not going to die. No, we're not going to die tonight!" _(- Tears of Mars' "Sojourn").**

**Things will pick up once more, in the next chapter! _Har har har._**


	10. I Love You

Three weeks later more, and Connor's return to the homestead was finally alight. He returned by nightfall.

"Ellie?" Connor went down to the basement area, looking below to see if Ellie was still there. He spotted her at the cot, sleeping in. "Ellie...!" Connor jogged over to her cot-side. He knelt down at the cot-side, and put a hand over her forehead. The first thing he saw was the square cloth on Ellie's cheek, that was covering a bruise that was finally lowering from swelling.

The softly placed hand on her forehead stirred Ellie awake, opening eyes to see Connor.

"Shit, you fucking scared me." Connor breathed out in relief to see Ellie awakening.

Ellie looked up at Connor and made a smile. "Hey." She greeted tiredly.

"I got the letter from Achilles, while I was gone." He brushed her loose bangs. "Are you okay?"

Ellie nodded her head, with a small "m-hm" to confirm it. "Just a little winded." Ellie admitted, as she started to try pulling herself up to a sitting position on the cot. Connor was about to stop her, but, Ellie assured him that she was fine to move. "I think it's starting to get better." Ellie rubbed her stomach uncomfortably, before exhaling heavily. "I feel like shit, though."

"Let me see." Connor gestured to Ellie's hands, moving them aside to lift up her dress shirt slightly. Enough to see the giant, closed gash over her stomach, that was stitched thickly with black sewing strings. "... Oh." Connor looked down at her stitched gash, in utmost disbelief. He put a hand over his eyes, rubbing them in frustration. "Charles Lee tried killing you, and I was not here to watch over you." He was blaming himself. Something Ellie knew he would do.

Ellie then started to pull herself out of bed, kicking her legs off the edge.

"You should not-" Connor tried stopping Ellie.

"Pssh." Ellie scoffed at him, which made Connor surprised. He honestly did not think Ellie still had enough strength in her to stand, but, she did it. Pulling herself off the cot and standing on her two feet, Ellie put her hand over her stomach, clutching her teeth together tightly, when she felt pinches of pain at the closed gash line. "I'm fine." She assured Connor, when she saw him give worry-wart eyes.

She walked normally, but still held her stomach.

"Did you speak to Achilles yet?" Ellie asked Connor.

"No." Connor shook his head. "He's asleep."

"Then, how was Monmouth?" Ellie asked him instead, looking up at Connor. "Everything okay?"

Connor shifted his eyes down to the floor, shaking his head in disappoint. "Charles Lee has been dismissed." He tells Ellie, and her face falls to disbelief. "Washington will not heed my warning of Lee betraying him, and is not going to do anything about it."

"Fuck." Ellie swore in frustration. "Is he fucking dumb or something? Charles Lee is going to have his ass, the next time they meet!"

"I tried wording that out to him, but, he does not understand." Connor made a glare, to the thought of Charles Lee still running amongst the land freely. "Son of a bitch."

Ellie scoffed to herself. "When I get back out there, I'm going to find that bug-eyed freakshow Charles, and stick a fucking knife in _his _stomach." She inhaled deeply through her nostrils, as she tried standing straight. "Fucking guys that tried to kill me..." And then, the question came to mind. "Hey. Were you here, about three weeks back?" She asked Connor curiously.

Connor made a bewildered look, shaking his head. "No. I was still in Monmouth at the time." He answered.

"Ah." Ellie raised her eyebrows to herself, nodding her head slightly.

Three weeks ago, when morning dawned, the two assailants that tried murdering Ellie before, were found dead, right at the basement floor of where Ellie was. Their throats were slashed, and left facedown on the floorboard. At first, Ellie had thought it was Connor that had did that, because he was visiting at the right time. But, now that Connor confirmed that he wasn't at the homestead at that time, every fell into place.

Haytham.

* * *

**[I Love You]**

"How old are you again?"

"... Fourteen."

The French captain was ready to scoff. "You? Fourteen years of age? From how the people of Boston and New York say that you've been at Connor's side since '73?" He took a good look at Ellie's face, into her big, vibrant green eyes. "You _do _look as if you've remained fourteen, though. Have you some sort of human-defect on aging, of some sort?" He asked curiously. "I mean," He shrugged his arms. "Since '73, to the year of '81, and you have not changed _one bit_."

Ellie became nervous, unsure of what to really say, to explain her non-aging process over the past _eight years _she's been next to Connor's side, during the entire war. She knew it was because of the Animus that moved time fast, and because her current state of age in body, in realism, was still fourteen. Even she found herself completely odd that she hadn't aged since the timeline next to Connor's side.

What was amazing to see was Connor and Achilles age right before her. She saw the new facial wrinkles age on their faces, and how their heights have changed, and how dark their eyes have become from the depression of war weighing on their shoulders. Connor's eyes, when she first saw him, were bright and glowing brown. But, now, they were an abundant color of darkness, that looked as if they were just abyss of black, with no sign of life.

But, if there was something she could read in Connor's eyes, were the lit ashes of desperation for nostalgia. And, the fact that he still held something deep.

"Maybe a defect?" She couldn't help but chuckle, evading the question quietly. "Maybe something else..."

"Ellie." The voice of Connor approached her from behind. "Are you fine?" He asked, while handing her a small pirate coat. Connor was back in his captain's uniform.

"Yeah. Nothing wrong." Ellie took the coat from his hand and slipped it on. "Ready to start departure?" She asked, with a tender smile on her face.

He saw this, and also smiled back. "Yes. We depart soon."

"I cannot believe this." The French captain of the ship was disappointed, as he looked out at the Aquila, that was parked next to his vessel. "Lafayette promised me a fleet far beyond compare, and a captain with no fear. Instead, I am greeted by _one_ whole ship, and," He looked over Connor and Ellie, "kids in costume."

"_Kids_?" Ellie was insulted. "Hey, man, what the-" Ellie was about to retort with an insult, but, Connor quickly stopped her with arm out in front of her.

"I promise that we are all you need, Admiral." Connor reassured the Frenchman.

But, the captain couldn't help but scoffed once more. "I doubt this very much. But, beggars cannot choose, hm?"

"And, the ships I required?" Connor asked.

"They are yours... provided we survive through this." The Frenchman still sounded highly doubtful of Connor.

"What would you have me do?"

"Hold the bay, while I engage the main fleet. Should any British ships dare approach, destroy them!" He firmly ordered. "We must keep them from Yorktown."

Connor nodded, understanding the order, and walked off, with Ellie following behind.

She threw the Frenchman a glare, before departing down the ship steps to venture forth to the Aquila.

On the deck on the Aquila, while pirates were maintaining the sails and cargo, Ellie strolled up to the bird's nest beam and looked straight up to where the nest was. Since her first step onto the ship, Ellie had never been given a chance to climb up to the nest. Something that she wanted to do for a while now. She knocked on the thick wood three times, before nodding her head to herself.

"Good ship." She said to herself, patting the beam. She exhaled heavily to herself, through her nostrils. For an odd reason, Ellie had a gut feeling of something that told her a bad cess was written across their task. Something of their mission to find and confront Charles felt off. As much as she did want Charles dead for almost killing her, Ellie felt that something was awfully wrong.

While in thought, Connor startled her with a rough pat on her shoulder. She looked up to him at her side, seeing that he was smiling down at her.

"You have not been on the bird's nest, yes?" He asked Ellie.

Her eyes lit up. "Can I go to the nest?!" She excitedly asked.

Connor gave her a nod.

The two climbed up the ropes that led up to the bird's nest. To the top of the nest, Ellie and Connor stood at the landing, to look out at the sunset of the horizon. The sky was covered in smoke, from a recent naval battle that occurred on the sea, not too long ago. The smoke clouded the sky with black fog, and the sun looked as if it were clouded down into a darkened orange, than it usually was. The rays of the dark sun beamed crimson into the partial of the setting sky.

"Looks like hell." Ellie couldn't help but say, looking out at the crimson sky.

"Yes." Connor step to Ellie's side. "Something that means death approaches."

Ellie snorted softly to herself. "I guess my intuitions were right, then..." She lightly shrugged her shoulders. "I had a bad feeling of something." She then looked up to Connor and asked, "Think someone's going to die tonight?"

Connor frowned to that. "It has to be Charles Lee that must be silenced, forever." He petted the back of Ellie's head as assurance. She didn't mind. "But, if it comes down to us, then..." Suddenly, Connor knelt down to Ellie's height, and put both his hands on her shoulders to turn her attention to him. "Ellie. I love you."

Ellie's eyes grew wide, like saucers. Her heart almost dropped to the sound of those words leaving Connor's lips. She almost felt her body become paralyzed in pure shock.

She nervously shifted her eyes to anything else beside her, other than Connor. "... In what _way_?" She asked, in a quieted tone of voice.

Connor made a small scoff, and smile. "Not _that_ way." He patted her shoulder roughly, as assurance. "I love you like a best friend, in this damned apocalypse. Since the last eight years with you at my side, I feel as if you have become... someone awfully important to me." He cupped his hand onto the side of Ellie's face. "I know I promised, eight years ago, to only watch over you for a short time, but... You have grown as a root onto me, as family."

Ellie's heart lifted to the truth of Connor's feelings. She put her small hands over his forearm that was extended out to her face.

"When you first appeared in my life, I knew you were something special." His smile was something softer and more realistic to Ellie's eyes. Something he never does. "When you first went into battle with me, at Concord, I knew you were more than just a little girl." He brushed her bangs aside with his thumb. "What kind of kid knows how to wield a gun and blade? Not many, as to my knowledge."

And for once in Ellie's life, she made a wide smile on her face. _Family_. The word in her head reminded her of how much loved ones she lost in the past, and how many wanted to leave her side. But, Connor was wanting nothing more, than to stick around her side, for as long as he could. She breathed in heavily, when she felt her heart-strings pull at her beatings hard when Connor gave her an embrace in his arm, holding onto her in his grasp as hard and warmly as he could.

Feeling coddled felt like an understatement. She felt reformed in the knowledge of knowing that she was needed.

Ellie embraced him back, with her small arms snaked around his back, as she pressed her nose and lips against his coat-covered shoulder. Her eyes closed for a moment as she embraced him tightly, and as she felt his hug tighten around her slim body as well.

Even in that blood-riddled sky full of hell, there was still a warm, sunny spot of some hope. A sunny spot, just like in Spring.

_Family_. The word reeled in her head like a broken record.

_**"I'm sorry, I don't understand where all of this is coming from. I thought that we were fine. Your head is running wild again. My dear, we still have everything. It's all in your mind. You've been having real bad dreams. You use to lie so close to me. There's nothing more, than emptied sheets, between our love. Our love." **_**(- Pink ft. Nate Ruess' "Just Give Me A Reason").**

**No. NO PEDO. Just great friendship between two blundering brutes that had gone through shit together. Besides, Ellie remains fourteen. Connor is still twenty-five, or twenty-six years, of age. Does the age difference make any sense to you? NOT ME.**

**More to come, in the next chapter! Peace, dawggie-dawg. :)**


	11. Starting Points

**[Just A Second]**

The naval battle was much more than expected on sea, with Ellie. It was dark, and the water was on fire with canon balls launching as attack, mass ships were sinking deep into the depths of the sea water, once they were neutralized. British ships were relentless on stopping the Admiral from his duty on maintaining the main fleet for the infiltration on Fort George. The clouds became darker from nightfall approaching, but the streaks of crimson slicing the sky were like the wounds of all hell breaking loose.

As much as the Aquila took damage, it still stayed sturdy and afloat on sea, while charging at the enemy ships that tried to defy her strength. Connor screamed orders on attacks, crewmen listened good and followed suit, and Ellie was right at Connor side the entire naval battle. When Connor could not maintain order to the pirates, Ellie took the lead-role of screaming out the orders and being the one to order which sails come in-and-out. Her voice boomed as loud as the canon's blasting. They listened to her.

When the last ship was taken down and invaded by the crewmen of the Aquila, taking control of the enemy ship's hold and vessel, Connor blasted the ship to hell, when he shot a one-shot pistol at a stack of gun-powdered barrels underneath the ruined deck. When the ship blew into smithereens, Connor and Ellie deployed out of the burning mass by making a high, daring, jump off the ship's edge, and luckily landing back onto the Aquila.

When they were back on their main base, Ellie looked back to the horizon, now seeing it curtained in red and black smokes of canon fires and ships going alight from devastation. Dozens more of ships approached the land in full speed, and they followed suit with the Aquila. More sounds of canon fire blasting through the air made Ellie think they sounded of thunderbolts from the sky itself. Roars of pirates and crewmembers from the charging ships from afar shouted out in throes.

What Ellie heard next from a screaming man was, "The British are coming!"

Returning back to the parked area of the vessels where the French Admiral was, Connor and Ellie met with him once more.

"They say that you took down the Man-Of-War all alone." He sounded most impressed with Connor's abilities on maintaining the Aquila vessel and crewmen. "Perhaps Lafayette did not exaggerate, when he spoke of your abilities. As promised, my ships are yours to command." He looked back to Connor. "What do you require?"

"Five of them must enter New York's harbor, flying British flags-"

"Wait, wait." The Admiral stopped Connor. "I thought you might need some pirates killed, or goods transported... And instead, you ask us to, what -_ shell_ New York?" He was in utmost confusion of Connor's ideals.

Connor shook his head. "No. Of course not." He assured him with his tone of voice.

"Ah." The Admiral nodded.

"Only part of it." Connor finished his answer.

The Admiral gave Connor a stern, studied look, unsure of the plan still. "Explain yourself." He asked.

"I mean to infiltrate Fort George. But, it is too well-guarded. Canon fire will breach its walls, and scatter its guards." Connor tried explaining his ploy carefully to the man.

He made a thoughtful look on his face, rethinking Connor's words. "And a ship, that flies a French flag, could never get near it..."

"You understand, then?" Connor asks once more, nodding his head once.

The Admiral just shook his head. "Not at all. _But_, a promise is a promise. Even to a _lunatique_." He gestured his hand to Connor, referring the word "lunatic" towards him.

Connor just stood there for a solid moment to give the Admiral a long stare, before he felt Ellie bump him in the side with her elbow, waking him back to his senses. "I will light a signal for you, when it is time to attack..." Connor just gave the final order, before he and Ellie departed off the ship to start their next step in the plan, while they heard the Admiral shouting orders to the other crewmen in French.

* * *

**[Moving On]**

The ship back to the young city of New York was quick, as the scout for the secret passage into the underground tunnels was. Ellie and Connor, back in their normal clothes, were making their way through the city, and towards a normal backyard of four houses walling the secret passage. When the two found the cellar doors, they ventured forth, down into the dark abyss of a man-made tunnel, underneath New York.

Using a lit lantern to guide their way through the tunnels, Ellie and Connor could hear the sounds of Frenchmen speaking to each other, of the Patriots and liberty. If any of the war's ideals were as good as the next step. Ellie could feel Connor tense to the sounds of their disagreeing tones, as she held onto his arm.

When they turned the corner to another tunnel, up ahead, they saw Lafayette and Stephan. Both were whispering something to each other in rash voices, before Connor and Ellie reappeared in front of them.

"Connor!" Lafayette happily greeted Connor, with his arms out to him for a hug.

Connor did not comply. He merely shifted his eyes down at his arms.

"Lafayette!" Ellie decided to hug the Frenchman, with her arms opened.

Both of them hugged each other tightly, before pulling apart.

"This tunnel will take you into the military district." Lafayette gestured to the tunnel ahead of them.

"And the Admiral?" Connor asked.

"He waits for you to light the signal - and then, the strike begins!"

"And, we will be there as well!" Stephan assured him, armed with his giant butcher's knife in his hand.

"Holy shit! A chef murderer! It's the Grimm Brothers all over again!" Ellie couldn't help but exclaim, while she was being dragged down the tunnel with Connor by her wrist.

* * *

**[What's The Whole World]**

Climbing out of a well, after pulling down an off-duty guard into his demise, Connor and Ellie were now standing in the midst of Fort George. The fort was large, as a town, and it was strictly militarized under heavy surveillance of eyes on the rooftops and on ground. Ellie, back in her own era, has been through these things before, and found this type of job to be something almost homing.

"We will have to scale the walls and rooftops to get to the lighthouse." Connor whispered towards Ellie, while the two hid behind a building wall, from a passing ground of on-duty guards walking in unison. "We cannot let a soul spot us."

"No problem." Ellie breathed out quietly. "I've done this before."

"You have?" Connor sounded slightly surprised.

"My friend, Joel, taught me everything on sneaking past these types of security." Ellie reminded Connor.

Back in some of the time periods, Ellie had actually told Connor about Joel. How Joel had taught her to be unafraid of taking another person's life, in order to survive. How he taught her how to use guns, and how he taught her how to use her own physique against the odds on sneaking. He taught her how to be a survivor, even though it meant that she would be taking a lot of lives with her.

"He taught you well." Connor complimented, as he nodded to Ellie.

"Yeah." Ellie shrugged. She then unsheathed her bow from around her shoulder. "I'm going to flank these assholes. You go ahead." She suggested her plan.

Connor hated the idea of leaving Ellie alone once more. But, he wanted to trust her as well. "Fine. But, you better be careful." He warned her once more, before he and her started up the building wall, to the flat rooftop.

Ellie spotted one guard on another rooftop, across from their starting line, and used her bow-and-arrow to take him down silently. As simple as she performed the silent assassination, the arrow quietly pierced the guard's head, and caused him to fall backwards onto the rooftop, instantly dead.

With that, Connor took his chance and scouted to the cleared rooftop, while Ellie followed behind after a minute he passed.

The process was done over and over again, until Connor was abled to reach the lighthouse, and safely scale up the wall, once Ellie used two dead bodies as distraction. She threw the bodies down, off the building. The loud sounds of thuds from where the bodies hit the ground caught the guards attention to go investigate. While that was done, Connor scaled the lighthouse wall in secrecy, and finally made it to the nest.

Once he was up there, Connor lit a torch, and threw it into the lighthouse pit, storming up a large bonfire in the mass. He looked out to the sea, seeing the ships that nestled to the fort, were prepared for striking.

When the said signal was lit, the message was sent out, and ships shot canon fire at the forts military district. Blasts of canon balls shred through the brick and wooden houses or shacks. Unfortunate guards were sliced in mutilation by on-coming canon balls directing at them. The crewmen of guards in the fort scrambled and scattered on grounds, trying to fight back for control. Most screamed in pure fear, or screamed in agonizing pain, when they were met by their own demise.

Once there was chaos amongst the fort, Connor leaped out of the lighthouse nest, plummeting down into the safety of a wagon full of hay.

Ellie quickly scaled down the building wall she was on, to catch up with Connor. "Ah, shit." She swore to herself, as a blast of canon fire startled her, enough to drop her down halfway the wall. But, she managed herself down the wall, and went to find Connor.

Fanning out through the narrow alleys of the destroyed bases of the fort, evading fleeing guards, Ellie couldn't seem to find Connor. She was unsure of whether to go back and search for him at the lighthouse, though, for she feared that he was already up ahead of her. So, she continued forth, until she made it to a circular, cluttered area of wooden crates, ground spotted with adult fire, and broken building mess scattering about the said area.

When she came closer to the area, Ellie was suddenly grabbed right at the back of her coat collar, and thrown back onto the ground, on her back. Immediately she was shoved down, with a hand surrounding her throat, keeping her firm on the ground. Right above her, she saw Haytham.

She didn't say anything. She only looked up at him, when he drew out his hidden blade from the grieve. He was heavily intended on plummeting the blade straight through her throat, and she knew it. But, she didn't want to fight back and hurt him. Instead, she clenched his wrist in both her hands, awaiting her own doom of being stabbed. She looked up at his grayish dark eyes with her bright green ones, as she saw his face on the verge of either fuming or crying.

His readied hand was shaking. He just looked down at her, for a very long, long time.

Until he sheathed the hidden blade.

"I can't..." Haytham hissed at himself. "I can't do it..." He swore at himself, rubbing his face in irritation. "Shit."

"Haytham..." Ellie coughed his name, feeling his grip on her neck still gripping out her oxygen. "I can't... breathe!" She tried shouting, clawing at his hand.

He let go of her throat, and grabbed her by the shirt collar to hoist her up to her feet. When she was up, inhaling hard for oxygen, Ellie was suddenly grabbed by two, nameless men, that were working with Haytham. They covered Ellie's mouth with a large hand, and kept her in a chokehold.

"I'm sorry...!" Haytham lastly told Ellie, before she was dragged away from the sight.

The hand over her mouth muffled screams and profanity, as she was dragged off. Ellie kicked and bit at the hand on her lips, but nothing worked. She couldn't see much of anything else from the debris covering the area with smoke, after the irritated kidnappers knocked her out with a slam of a brick to her head, but, all she knew was that she was taken from Connor.

When Connor emerged into the sight, he was bleeding profusely from the side. A canon fire went off earlier, and he accidentally jumped into its midst. He was badly damaged by the impact, but wanted nothing more, than to search for Charles Lee.

"Where are you, Charles?!" Connor screamed out in frustration, and pain, using a barrel as support to lean on.

"Gone." A voice behind him sounded out.

When Connor looked, he caught a glimpse of Haytham charging at him, before he was pummeled by his father's attacks. Haytham was an excellent fighter in close range, and was easily taking down Connor.

But, Connor regrouped, and also fought back to keep Haytham at bay.

"Come now! You cannot hope to match with me! Through all your efforts, you are still but a boy, with so much left to learn!" Haytham shouted.

Connor retorted, with a blade plunging into the forearm of Haytham's. With that, Haytham screamed out in sheer agony to the piercing of the blade, and backed off. "Give me Lee!" Connor screamed.

"Impossible!" Haytham breathed in hard, trying to maintain his self-esteem. "He is a promise of a better future! The sheep need a shepherd!" Haytham stopped seething in pain for a moment, while he gripped his bloodied forearm.

Connor spat blood from his mouth. "He has been dismissed and censured. He can do _nothing_ for you now!"

"Psh. A temporary set back." Haytham examined his forearm once, before dropping it to use his other good hand to unsheathe a short steel sword from his hip scabbard. "He will be restored..."

Connor's heart dropped. He didn't want to fight Haytham, nor kill him. For once, he was beginning to find solace in his father's side, and did not want to hurt him. But, he knew that Haytham was dedicated to the Templar Order, more than anything else. Connor unwillingly unsheathed his tomahawk, ready to fight back against the man he called father.

**Haytham always reminded me of the song, "Good Lord Knows That I'm Greedy", by Warmer. Somehow, it fits him perfectly. Nothing religious, of course. Just something that speaks of the person's inner demons of their own needy and greedy ways.**

**Ellie is kidnapped! The first time, too. Where will she be brought, and will she escape? Will Connor make it on time to save her, or not?**

**More to come, in the next chapter! :B**


	12. Meeting Edward

**[Held Against You]**

_"Wakey-wakey, lass!" A foreign voice, with a strong British accent, was waking Ellie up from her temporary knock out. "Ey, lass! Are ya dead, or ignorin' me?" The voice laughed with a bark, before Ellie felt a foot kick at her shin, trying to wake her up some more. "I can't wait here forever, youngin'! Get those eyelids opened and wipe the dust out o' yer eyes! We've work to do!"_

_The tenacious voice woke Ellie up to flutter her eyes open, and make a pained groan to herself, as she put both her hands over the temple of her head, feeling a churning migraine numbing her brain for a momentary second. She turned over to her back, moving her mobile legs._

_"I know, hey?" The foreign voice made a scoff to Ellie's pained expression. She then felt a rough pat on her shoulder. "Come now. We've work to go to."_

_When Ellie's focus came back into the clear, she saw that she was in a cabin, of what seemed like a ship. She was laying in a cot, with the familiar, dreamy face of someone pacing around the small room._

_"Holy shit." Ellie shot up on the cot, sitting up now. "... You're Edward." She pointed at him, with an awe-stricken look on her face._

_Edward turned to her. It was most definitely Edward Kenway, that she dreamt of nights before. She had no clue who the man was, nor his relations with Haytham and Connor. But, his last name gave out a decent hint of some sort of ties to the two men. He had the distinctive look of Haytham and Connor in him, and the same, furrowed eyebrows as Connor. His eyes were bright blue - something Haytham and Connor did not have. Also, Edward's hair was a ridiculously bright blonde color, that seemed almost a solid tone._

_But, what stood out the most, was his outfit. He was wearing the entire get-up of the creed's uniform and hood over his head._

_"Yeh...?" Edward sounded utterly confused of Ellie's shock. "I'm Edward." He then stepped closer to Ellie and brushed her bangs aside to examine her temple. "Did that hit t' the head give ya amnesia, or some sort o' defect?" Edward looked over Ellie's bruise on her temple, and made a disapproving click of his tongue three times. "Poor thing." He patted the side of her face. "Ya always were the curious one."_

_Ellie didn't know what to exactly say to the man now. She just pressed her lips together in thought, shifting her eyes away for a moment. "Okay." Ellie nodded up to Edward._

_As said before, Edward had worked to be done, on the outside of the cabin. Ellie stepped outside with him, onto deck, being greeted by the strong familiarity of ocean water scent and sounds of gulls flying over the sails of the on-going ship's destination. The crewmen were something different, of course. They looked rougher. Aged. Experienced. And, much more drenched in their own body odor._

_"The ankle-biter awakens!" A voice boomed out from the cockpit of where the ship's steering wheel was located. Ellie looked up, and saw the iconic, marveled favorite villain of the history books on pirates: Black-Beard. "That fall from the cliff got you a lovely bruise on the head, deary. Good that you didn't die."_

_"Okay. Don't be a dick." Ellie just crossed her arms, throwing a glare at Black-Beard._

_"We're heading for land, as we speak!" A pirate shouted from the bird's nest. "Looks like a red coat infested land, captain!"_

_Edward made a sounding smirk, as he marched up the wooden steps to the cockpit, with Ellie still following behind. He took charge of the steering wheel, as Ellie stood next to him, looking out at the horizon of the upcoming land that she could see from their distance. She shield her eyes with her hand hovering over her eyes, and squinted to look out at the island's location._

_"Ready for adventure, rapscallion?" Edward asked Ellie, as he adjusted the hood on his head._

_"Just tell me where to go, and it'll be a snap." Ellie boldly said to Edward, with a nod of her head._

_"Aye! Just what I wanted t' hear!"_

* * *

**[Just One Yesterday]**

_The island they easily invaded was something on shore, where red coats were quickly turned over for questioning on a man's whereabouts for a treasure the pirates were on search for. A beautiful island, when it turned to sunset on the horizon. Once the beach was cleared of anymore violence, the pirates settled down to relax and party with one another with rum, ladies and drunkard play-time._

_While that was about, Edward, Black-Beard and Ellie were sitting far off from the party area, interrogating a red coat. The guard was tied to a post, and was cruelly being fooled around with, as Edward was throwing knives at the unwillingly participant._

_"Try, Ellie! Try!" Edward pressed on, as he handed the handle-side of a loop knife to her._

_"I'm good." Ellie did not want to partake._

_Edward shrugged, taking back the blade, and aimed straight at the wooden post, of where a helpless red coat guard was tied up to._

_The knife purposely missed the guard's sweaty face, as the blade sliced through the wood, right next to the petrified man's head. He yelped out in fright when he heard the boom of the blade colliding with the post against his ear, making the other on-looking pirates laugh out hard to his reaction._

_Black-Beard laughed hard, while smoking a lit pipe of tobacco. The smoke spewed out of his mouth as he bellowed. "Wide on the mark, Kenway?" Black-Beard asked in a teasing, chuckling tone, as Edward got up from crouching to approach the tied red coat man._

_"Maybe he remembers where his _rat_ is hidin'." Edward grasped the jawline of the red coat's with his large hand, forcing him to look up at him. "Before me aim _remarkably_ improves!" He callously joked, scaring the tied man._

_The pirates barked out laughter, except for one particular man, that was watching the entire punishment._

_The stranger angrily marched away, shoving a pirate woman aside, departing off into the party grounds._

_Ellie noticed the stranger's reaction and stared at him as he left in fury. Edward also watched him leave._

_As he went off a far distance, Edward turned to Black-Beard. "That flushed 'im out." He then glanced at Ellie, and made a smirk. "Up to it, young blood." He flicked his wrist at her to follow him. "We've got creepin' t' do."_

_Ellie got up from her chair and followed Edward at his back. While following his steps, she took a fitted brown jacket and black pirate's hat from a fallen drunk, who didn't care about his belongings being used by a girl._

_While shadowing the stranger's tail, Ellie kept thinking hard to herself as to how she had rapport to Edward. She was delirious to the entire ordeal of what was happening, and yet, she felt the most comfortable around Edward. She couldn't find it in herself to wake just yet, or if she could. She wanted to know what this dream was telling her first, due to the impact of some sort of message being in the caged memory of something she had no clue of._

_Tailing the stranger a few more ways throughout the crowded pirate party, Edward and Ellie both followed him into the greenery of the jungle, near the beach. Once they were in the shadows, Edward threw on his hood. He motioned for Ellie to start jogging, once the stranger also began to start jogging ahead._

_In the distance, the stranger picked up a lantern and lit it with a match, lighting his way through the brush. As he walked ahead, he called a few names that were in hiding within the jungle shadows. A round of red coats up were ahead, that were carrying lit lanterns as well._

_"Jenkins? Is that you?" A red coat saw the stranger approach fast to them. "What's the news?"_

_"Damn near a riot out there!" Jenkins, the stranger, exclaimed. "And, I reckon Kenway suspects something... He never misses much."_

_"Damn straight." Edward whispered to himself. "Over here." He quickly said to Ellie, as the two motioned through the brush, to evade curious ears of the red coats._

_Edward and Ellie shrouded themselves into the darkened, giant leaves of the jungle brush, easily maneuvering through the darkness. __They approached a small stream of a steep creek, that was walkable as a staircase, due to the sturdy piles of large rocks permanently drilled into the ground, underneath the stream. Edward and Ellie stepped up the stream with ease, as the red coats missed their marks of spotting them._

_At the top of the steep hill, there was a lone red coat, with his back turned. Edward immediately darted up the watery hill and took out the guard in a swift notion of his unsheathed hidden blade plunging into the back of the guard's head, and dropping him facedown onto the grassy trail._

_"That's how it's done in the crew." Edward couldn't help but glorify, sheathing his hidden blade. "Yer turn soon, young blood." He nodded to Ellie._

_Ellie heard this, and immediately checked if her switchblade was in her pocket. Luckily, it still was, and she breathed out in relief._

_"Stay here." A red coat ordered another one, once Edward and Ellie snuck passed the corner of another brush of jungle mass, where they saw Jenkins and a red coat walking through a trail ahead, while one red coat had unfortunately stayed behind to take lookout for anything suspicious. "Shoot anything that moves." The red coat lastly ordered to him, before he and Jenkins disappeared into the trail._

_Edward patted Ellie's shoulder, as a notion of having her chance at taking out the guard._

_Ellie crouched and snuck towards the red coat, with her switchblade drawn, as her hand held the handle backwards. When she closed in, she jumped out on his back and struck the blade straight through the man's neck, while her other hand was wrapped over his mouth, to prevent screaming. When he collapsed on the ground from the one-strike kill, Ellie got up and withdrew her switchblade into the handle and sheathed it back into her pocket, still crouching._

_"Remarkable, as always." Edward ruffled the top of her head in gratitude._

_"Thank you." Ellie said under her breath happily._

_The two caught up on Jenkins' tail, overhearing a conversation going on with him and the other red coat. Their conversation consisted on the recent torment on the red coat that was being pressed to break, and give out location on the "rat" Edward and Black-Beard were looking for. Ellie didn't know what was still going on, but, she didn't want to know either. She was sure this would all avalanche into nothingness, once she woke from her slumber._

_"Here, here." Edward made a notion towards a large, climbable mountain wall. Both the scouters scaled the wall to evade the eyes of the two men still gawking._

_"Light the signal." A man ordered to another one, that was crouching at an unlit bundle of firewood, right at a cliff of sunlight and red sky._

_When Jenkins and the man stopped at the precise spot underneath the mountain wall, Edward and Ellie jumped straight down on the individuals with their blades drawn, plummeting down feet first into their backs, and plunging their blades through the backs of their heads, slamming their faces down into the dirt._

_"Oh, shit!" Ellie noticed the group of men, with readied pistols in their hands. "Too many-"_

_Edward immediately reacted, quickly drawing out two pistols strapped to his chest, and perfectly executing all four men that outnumbered them. He had two extra guns strapped to his belt, on his hip holsters. With all one-shot pistols, he shot them all down beautifully._

_Ellie's jaw dropped to the stylish execution Edward performed, as she saw the men dropped dead._

_"You asshole!" Ellie shoved Edward at his back, out of awe-struck excitement. "Do _I _even know how to do that?!"_

_Edward barked out laughing, turning around and took Ellie's small, slim hands into his larger, warmer hands. "Of course not!" He crouched to her height. "When we get done with all the bullshit goin' on here, I'll teach ya a thing or two of me tactics, young blood." He grinned at her, with his eyes lighting up. He look spectacularly handsome, when he grinned in a genuine way._

_Ellie felt her ears almost heat up in bashfulness. She immediately drew her hands back from his, when they heard the sound of explosions going on, in the large ocean view, from where they stood at on the cliff._

_Both approached the ledge to look out at the sunset ocean, chalked full of battle ships, unbeknownst to Edward's knowledge._

_"What the devil?" Edward hissed at himself, looking out at the ships approaching._

_Before Ellie could ask what was happening, a battle ship shadowed in the ocean distance of fog and canon fire smoke, shot rounds of canon fire, straight at Edward and Ellie's way._

_Both crouched down and covered their heads with their arms, as the rain of death-defying canon balls crushing down onto the party grounds, just below the cliff Ellie and Edward were on. The ground shook hard to the impacting canon fire plummeting the ground hard, and blasts of fire shot out, as well as scraps of large wood and ground blew up into the air. The party ground was drenched in fire, heavy black smoke, and destroyed homes._

_"Come now!" Edward shouted Ellie's way, as they both regrouped and started through the violence of the obliterated grounds._

_Edward and Ellie used whatever beams and house walls still standing to jump onto the next, trying to catch up to the ocean water, where his own ship was awaiting them. From a distance, the two could hear Black-Beard shouting for the two to approach quickly._

_"Keep up, young blood!" Edward barked out laughing the entire time, through the debris of fire and smoke sparking the air. "You have to move faster than that!"_

_Ellie didn't say anything as a retort. She was fully concentrated on tracing Edward's running feet with her own, as she maneuvered through the broken homes and smoke, as well as he did with fluent abilities of dodging incoming canon fire and falling rubble of more home walls collapsing onto their trail, back to the ship. When the two reached the docks, seeing scatters of crewmen trying to regroup back onto the ship, Edward and Ellie flew straight across the rubble, and through the debris._

_Before they knew it, both were landing straight down onto the railing of Edward's said ship._

_Once they jumped onto the ship floor, Edward immediately marched towards the steering wheel of his ship, removing his hood, and shouted, "Stations, lads!" He took back control of his ship, deploying all sails to shove the vessel straight out into sea, to fight back against the rebellious battle ships ahead._

_"What's next?" Ellie shouted to Edward, through the rumble of canon fire still emerging through the sea surface._

_"We take down the said fuckers and drive 'em int' their graves, young blood!" Edward barked out, before bellowing out in victorious cackling._

_Ellie made a unsure look on her face, with a raise of her eyebrow, before she just shrugged._

_"Rain! Rain!" Edward screamed out, as he and Black-Beard quickly ducked down to take cover from the canon fire driving down onto the deck. __Edward pulled Ellie down to his side, wrapping his arm over her head._

_Ellie just curled close to his side, keeping her head down, as the canon fire quaked the ship with impact._

_"Ey, young blood!" Edward shouted to Ellie, through the rumble. "Did I ever tell ya that yer me favorite youngin'?" He asked her, grinning with his pearly whites at her. "Or, did I ever tell ya that yer me favorite gran'child?"_

_Ellie's expression fell. "I'm your _what-_?!"_

_"Deploy barrels!" Edward screamed out, standing back up, with Ellie also doing the same._

_The back of the ship spewed out five barrels onto sea, at a charging battleship that wanted to take down Edward and his ship. When the nose of the battleship collided with the barrels, the impact made the barrels ignite with gunpowder. That drilled large holes into the nose of the battleship, yet it still persisted on chasing Edward._

_Edward turned his ship hard to the right, with the side of it exposing readied canons prepared to fire. With Edward's voice screaming out to fire, the canons lit up with explosions of fiery canon balls launching straight at the damaged battleship with violent impact. It was enough to plunge the ship down to a stop, as the deck began to light up with wild fire of gunpowder igniting._

_Edward took the chance and drove his ship towards the wrecked ship, stopping it farther away from the fiery ship. When the ship parked, all pirate men on Edward's ship started to spew out at the wrecked ship with swords and pistols armed in their hands._

_"The party is just beginning!" Edward hollered out. "Young blood! Onward!" He and Ellie ran off onto the deck to deploy themselves onto the bird's nest._

_Quickly, once they approached the large beam, below the bird's nest, Edward grabbed Ellie by her wrist and drove her up to his side, as her wrapped his arm around the small of her back. Ellie immediately clenched her hands over his shoulders when Edward kicked down a handle that held a rope down, and the two went flying up to the bird's nest._

_When the two landed safely on the bird's nest, they took the opportunity on jumping down into the battleship's deck._

_"Hang tight, lass." Edward said to Ellie, when she wouldn't let go of his shoulders._

_He took a leap of faith into the burning battleship deck, with both his hidden blades drawn out, and plummeted down onto enemy pirates with the blades driving through the backs of their heads._

_When they were down on deck, Ellie let go of his shoulders, and immediately grabbed a fallen enemy's sword, to use as a substitute machete she didn't have with her._

_The two ran through the clouded deck, mashing in faces of enemy pirates that tried stopping them. Using the sharp sword, Ellie hammered in pirate men's faces with quick movements and ease, as they instantly went down from sharp impact._

_"_Young blood_! It's why ya 've the name!" Edward complimented Ellie on her attacks, while he drew out a gun from his hip holster, and shot a round at a pirate that was about to strike down at a fallen Black-Beard. "Ya old fool!" Edward shouted at Black-Beard's way, running to his side to help him up. "We're outnumbered, mate!"_

_Black-Beard stood up, with his own sword still drawn in his hand. "This isn't the first time, Kenway! And, it won't be the last!"_

_"Take no man alive! And, give none, neither!" Edward screamed out, as the roar of his pirate men bellowed out. "Young blood!" Edward looked over at Ellie, seeing that she finished taking down a enemy._

_She looked at him, breathing hard. He was about to say something to her, when a gunshot rung out, and hit Ellie square in the side of her neck, taking her down immediately, as blood spurted out of her new gunshot hole in her neck._

_"ELLIE!" Edward screamed in horror, darting straight to her side. He quickly went down to her side to turn her over to her back, seeing that she was choking on her own blood in her throat, as a thick stream of red blood lined out of her mouth. "Ellie, no!" Edward screamed, as he put his large hand over the gunshot hole, trying to cover up the flow of blood loss. "Ellie! Stay with me!"_

_Ellie was drowning in her own blood, feeling as the inside of her throat heated up with the thick liquid of her own. She grabbed Edward's wrist that was extended out to her neck and kicked her feet, in sheer pain._

_"Ellie! Ya 've got to escape!" Edward suddenly started screaming down at her. "Ya 've got to escape! You're the only one left! You're the only one!" His words rung out in a deeper meaning behind them, and Ellie's eyes were beginning to water up, as she felt the squeeze of her heart strings beginning to pull tight on her beating organ. "Ya can't die! Remember, yer one of us! Yer-"_

_**"World on fire with a smoking sun, stops everything and everyone. Brace yourself, for all will pay. Help is on the way. Girl, I will cover you when the sky comes crashing in. I'll go the distance, lead the way to your darkest sin. You know there's something coming down from the sky above!" **_**(- Les Friction's "World On Fire").**

**Finally, Ellie meets the secret ancestor of Connor's, Edward. But, is there a deeper meaning behind this meeting?**

**More to come, in the next chapter! 8B**


	13. No One Else Will

**[Rise]**

The blast of gunfire woke Ellie from her knock out, as she inhaled sharply and snapped open her eyes.

She looked where ever she was, in pure fright, not understanding where she was at the moment. She wasn't handcuffed or bounded in anything, but, she was locked up behind a large, steel cage wall of bars, within a dark, dimly lit room. The memorable déjà vu of being caged behind darkness felt so familiar, in the most heartbreaking sort of way. Ellie wasn't trapped in the cold air of Winter, though. Instead, just neutral warming air.

"You're awake." A voice brought Ellie's senses up more. It was the familiar British voice of Charles Lee. "I thought you'd never wake." He approached the cage, with something in his hand. It looked like a loaf of uncut bread. "Here. Eat." He tossed it through the bars, and Ellie caught it in her arms quickly.

Ellie knew the bread wouldn't be tainted in anything that was poison. Also, she knew that if Charles wanted to have her dead, she would have been a long time ago. But, before she ate, she looked up at Charles, and asked, "Where's Haytham?" in a quieted tone of voice.

Charles hesitated to answer that question for a long moment of his time. "... Dead. Murdered." He finally answered. "... By that _damned_ Assassin."

Ellie's eyes shifted down to the floor for a moment. She never mourned for someone's death before, but, hearing the fact that Haytham was killed by Connor felt halfway right for his finale, but at the same time, it felt wronged. Ellie did like Haytham, closely as a family man, and was downright saddened to hear of his death.

"And... Connor?" Ellie asked, while she began to tear the loaf of bread in half to start eating.

"Still alive, sadly." Charles answered, with disappoint in his voice. Ellie felt her heart rise slightly to the news. "I had met him earlier, when we hosted Haytham's burial."

"Oh." Ellie eyebrows furrowed slightly. "And, what?_ I_ didn't get to go to his funeral?" Ellie snapped at Charles.

"No." Charles answered in a firm tone, shaking his head. "Neither did that Assassin, when he decided to so rudely interrupt the speech I made in Haytham's memory."

Ellie made a scoff. "Connor probably listened, but, he probably cut it short, because it was full of shit."

Charles' face was showing fumes of rage, hearing Ellie's insult.

"I'm not directing it to Haytham, though." Ellie added in quickly. "But, whatever bullshit you said at his funeral, was probably something even _he_ would say was full of lies." Ellie ate some pieces of bread after stating her thought, watching Charles closely.

Charles stared back at Ellie for a long period of time, with something in his eyes telling her that she was going to be killed if she insulted him a second time. As unafraid as she was of Charles, Ellie decided to remain quiet and eat.

"That Assassin also spoke of you, after I had him sent away by my guards." Charles paced in front of the cage, like a hound surrounding the fox. "He thinks I won't kill you. He is yet to speak on judging me! Judging Haytham! Judging the Order!" Charles exclaimed loudly, sounding completely upset over the idea of Connor defying him. "Haytham tried to save the Assassins! To keep us joined together, and bring freedom to this damned world!"

Ellie fell quiet there, as she ate a piece of bread. Somehow, the idea of Haytham wanting all orders to join forces sounded almost exact. He did see something great in Connor, Ellie knew. Haytham was blunt, but, he would never say he hated Connor. In fact, Ellie knew deep down that he did love Connor as his own son. But, the talk on having peace in the world by letting the Templars win would mean a turn for the worse, on himself and the Assassins. Ellie didn't know what to honestly think.

"Haytham loved Connor." Ellie mumbled loudly. "At that point, with you and Connor fighting over him, Haytham must have felt like the prettiest girl in prom by then!" Ellie joked, finishing the loaf of bread quickly. "I think Haytham would have known the worst would happen. Maybe he knew he was going to die? Who knows." Ellie shrugged.

Charles just shook his head to himself, quietly. "I'd kill you, right now, for speaking in such a way of Haytham..." Charles hissed out his threat. "But, not today. Not now. Haytham wanted you to remain alive, whatever reason is unbeknownst to me. But, when the time comes, where I want to make Connor's life's work crumble right in front of him, _you'll_ be the first to be _burning alive_, before his very eyes!" Charles screamed, raising his voice at Ellie, closing into the bars of the cage.

Ellie didn't say anything to that. She just gave Charles an extremely long stare, studying his glowing blue eyes with her green ones. She then shook her head. "You're so full of shit." She mumbled angrily. "You get near that homestead, or his peoples' village, then you're just making a death sentence for yourself, buddy." Ellie hissed back, with venom in her every word. "I think you should rethink your ideas before making some stupid ones."

Charles backed off from the cage to also give Ellie a stare back. Until he finally spoke, "See you tomorrow, Ellie." as he left the dark room.

* * *

**[Fight and Rise]**

The next day, as Ellie was asleep on the hard floor, with her body curled up into a 'C', the cage door was silently unlatched and searched by a stranger. The man was no one Ellie knew, but he worked with Charles and the Order closely. He was merely inside the cage to check on Ellie's condition. He was told many times to not open the cage and enter, for Ellie was just as dangerous as the next person. But, the stranger couldn't help himself.

"Wakey-wakey!" The stranger swooped down at Ellie, grabbing her tiny wrists and throwing them above her head, pinning her down. Ellie snapped her eyes open to the sight of the man above her. "It's nighttime, but wouldn't hurt to make you do something in your time." He wickedly grinned at her, using one hand to pin her down, as he started fondling with the buttons on his dress shirt.

Ellie screamed, kicking her legs and struggling to run. "Let me go, you sick fucker!" Ellie screamed loudly, pulling at her arms, trying to break the hold. "Fucking shit! Get the hell off of me! Stop!" She screamed more, while the man struggled to keep her in place.

"Shut up!" The man screamed back, before delivering a slap across Ellie's face. The slap was sudden and hard, that Ellie bit down on her lip accidentally, and drew blood.

Now, Ellie was more furious. Her eyes grew wide and her eyebrows furrowed hard. She gripped her hands into fists, and conjured up all the strength into her upper body. With a reminder of a self-defense attack Achilles taught her, Ellie drew back her head, and threw it forward, colliding her forehead with the stranger's nose.

The hit was hard and blunt, that the man felt his nose crackle lightly and start drawing blood from the nostrils. He yelped out in pain, with his hold around her wrists releasing lightly.

Ellie took the chance, and slipped her right-hand out of his grasp, and quickly went for the hip of his belt to unsheathe a blade. She thrust the stolen blade into the man's throat, silencing him immediately. He made a small gurgle of nonsense, as blood was immediately drawing, before she tossed his body aside, pulling out the blade. His body went slump, and he wasn't breathing any longer.

Able to stand, Ellie found that her body was shaking in utmost fear. She ripped off the man's knife holster and attached it to her own belt, along with sheathing the bloodied blade. She breathed hard, with her shoulders rising and falling heavily, stumbling out of the opened cage, trying to keep herself balanced. She wiped the blood off of her lips with her long sleeve and started out the dark room, towards the only door in the room.

When she shoved the door open, she was met by the sounds of the Green Dragon Tavern. People were chattering away, drinking rum, having a good time. As if they had no clue that Ellie was in the basement level of the tavern. Perhaps they didn't?

Ellie was outside the basement level, being met by the smell of rum and sounds of people laughing and talking. She didn't draw attention to herself from anyone. It gave her the idea that they didn't know that she was down there. Charles must have snuck her down there somehow.

"Shit." Ellie quietly swore to herself, as she began out the tavern doors. The place reeked with memory of Haytham and the times they spent together.

When she made it out the double doors of the tavern, Ellie was then met by the cold breeze of Fall, and the sounds of everyday lives going by. She breathed hard, still trembling slightly, as she began off down the brick road, to anywhere that wasn't the tavern.

She walked a good few miles down the large city roads, until she met a familiar marketplace, near the harbor. She decided to go take a rest there, sitting down at a bench. As she tried to think back on everything, Ellie could hear the sounds of salesman shouting at passing customers, the paperboy also shouting at people to read the extra. The sea scent was close and made her mind reel back to the better times at sea. She sighed to herself, wiping her other sleeve over her eyes tiredly, as she hunched over where she sat and rested her weight on her legs.

"Where are you Connor?" Ellie asked herself, with her eyes closed for a moment.

Before she could think more onto herself, Ellie was suddenly grabbed by the back of her waistcoat collar and pulled back with force, out of the bench, and onto her feet again.

"How did you get out?!" Charles' familiar voice rang through Ellie's ears. He grabbed the holster with the bloodied knife and tore it off her belt, tossing it aside. He then grabbed her wrists and locked them in place behind her back. His other hand was still latched onto the back of her collar. "It doesn't matter. We have to move!" He shouted, as he started dragging Ellie through the harbor.

Ellie screamed and screamed, trying to draw attention to herself, trying to show that Charles was being aggressive. She swore at Charles all the way towards the end of the harbor, where he spoke to a man about using a ship. Ellie kept shouting at the nameless man to not listen to Charles, that he was crazy and trying to kidnap her.

"Shut up!" Charles screamed at her, grabbing the back of her hair and holding her head back. "Shut up, or I'll-!" Before Charles could finish that threat, his eyes drew over to a familiar color in the crowd running towards them. "Shit!" Charles swore, grabbing Ellie and running with her. Incredibly, Charles was strong enough to pick her up and run, with her in the loop of his arm, and feet off the ground.

Looking back at what he was running from, Ellie saw the silhouette of her savior charging after them.

"CONNOR!" Ellie screamed Connor's name, as she held onto Charles' to look over his shoulder, watching Connor run after them. "Let me fucking go, prick!" Ellie then started fighting with Charles, for him to let her go. She did plenty enough to make him want to drop her, by smacking her hands in his face, and kicking her legs profusely. But, Charles had the utmost patience with her, and drawing back his need to smack her back.

Before she could figure out where they were blindly darting off to, Ellie smelled the intense scent of a fire going on ahead, that Charles was aiming for. It was a massive ship, that was on fire, going straight down to hell, with the flames engulfing it in its wrath. Charles most likely used this as a get-go, to evade Connor.

"Holy fucking A!" Ellie screamed, seeing above her that she ship ceiling was set a blaze, and the entire ships structure was gone to hell. "Are you batshit crazy?!" Ellie screamed at Charles, now latching on to his shoulder, in fear of being dropped in the fire. "CONNOR!" Ellie continued shouting Connor's name, as they went deeper into the burning ship's core, trying to give Connor an idea of where they might be, since they were ahead, blinding running through obstacles and passing through flames quickly.

The ships structure of high beams and curved walls were collapsing to the intensity of the flames rotting them down into rubble and ash. Ellie was watching behind them as the ship's décor was vandalized by the fire, growing more afraid of the idea that Connor was caught in the glimpse of engulfment of the blaze.

When the two made it on the exterior of the ship to jump across towering steps and docks, Ellie could see from a distance that Connor leaped out of the smoke inside the ship, and was hightailing it after their every step.

"_Connor_!" Ellie's heart lit up to the sight of Connor, reaching out her hand to his direction. "Connor, this fucker is _crazy_!" Ellie screamed.

Charles leaped back inside the ship interior, jumping across high beams, but not fast enough, since Ellie's carrying-weight slowed him down some. Connor was able to keep up now, just close enough to reach out and grab Ellie's extended hand, when-

_CRACKLE._

The landing below their feet suddenly collapsed, and the three went plummeting down into another landing below them. The sounds of their bodies thudding against the wooden cabin floor screeched out, as well as the wood colliding with their bodies and floor. Luckily, Ellie was not harmed, but, Connor accidentally landed hard on a piece of beam wood, that struck straight through the side of his abdomen, piercing his body, and spurting out fresh blood.

After a brief black out on all three of them, Connor woke first, shoving off a long wooden board from his body, and groaned loudly to the intense piercing of the beam wood struck into his abdomen. As he put both his hands over the wood still sticking out of his body, trying to slowly pry out the wood, Charles also regain consciousness, stumbling onto his feet, and breathing hard, finding that Ellie was still out, and Connor was struggling.

He slowly walked over to Connor, standing over him at his side.

"Why do you persist?" Charles asked in utmost disbelief. "You put us down, we rise again. You end one plot, we forge another." He shook his head, as he watched Connor struggle to pull out the beam. "You try so hard, and it ends the same. Those who know you think you're mad, and _this _is why." He gestured to Connor's fallen form, and the beam, that Connor pried out of his abdomen finally, with the sound of his skin rippling and blood spurting out on the wooden floor. "Even those men you sought to save have turned their backs on you. Yet, you fight. You resist... Why?" Charles asked Connor now.

Connor couldn't answer correctly to that. He remained on his back, laying in pain of his abdomen in shock of the bleeding.

Charles did not wait for an answer, when he heard Ellie start to pull herself up from her black out. She was on her knees, with her hands on the floor still. She felt dizzy from the fall, when she hit the back of her head on the floor first. She closed her eyes for a moment long to regain her senses, but not fast enough, when she felt the shove of a foot roll her weakly onto her back.

"This is all your fault!" Charles screamed at Ellie, straddling her to put his hands around her throat. "You had to come into our lives. You had to get in the way of our plans!" He started squeezing her slim throat hard with his large hands, making her eyes grow wide, and her hands react by grabbing his wrists. "What _are _you to Haytham and Connor? You had no purpose of being here!" He hissed down at her, gripping her throat more with force.

Ellie made a small sound of a wheeze, feeling the air in her body literally being squeezed out.

"NO!" Connor suddenly leaped out from his fallen form and tackled Charles, off of Ellie. "Because no one else will!" He screamed, unsheathing a long blade from his hip holster, and began to profusely stab Charles' straight through the face. The strikes were brutal, and digging straight into Connor's mind, to remember that day forward. Blood flew out of Charles' face as Connor dug the knife into his face and pulled out, with skin matter following suit, and crushing through his face plate.

Charles Lee's body was already dead from the first strike to his face, but, Connor, finally letting out the bottled hatred he had stored for the man for nine long years had finally come out to play. Of everything he took away from him ions ago, up until now, Connor was wailing out on the man, with everything he felt towards him. Pure hatred. Connor used both his hands on the handle of the blade, repetitively stabbing and ripping through the now-indescribable identity of Charles Lee's. Blood coated his long, white sleeves and on his chest and face, as he continued forth with obliterating anything recognizable to the dead man.

"You took everything from me!" Connor screamed at Charles' corpse. "My people! My friends! My _father_!" Connor continued thrusting the sharp, bloodied blade into Charles' face and flesh.

Ellie, regaining her strength from the sight of Connor wailing out on the dead Charles, immediately ran to Connor to stop him. With her small hands, she quickly grabbed at Connor's arms and pulled him back, with the blade still embedded into Charles' face. She grabbed Connor's sleeve and pull him off of Charles, screaming, "Connor! Connor, stop!"

"Don't fucking touch me!" Connor screamed in breathless fury, still in a strong state of a killer-trance, as he tried to fight out of her hold and words to return to Charles' unrecognizable face.

"Connor! Look!" Ellie turn him to her, holding his bloodied face in her hands. "Look! It's me! It's me!" Ellie kept Connor's face still, making him look at her, straight in the eyes.

When Connor realized who it was, his pupils began to grow back to wider black dots, out of their dilated forms. "... Ellie...?" Connor breathed out in almost a whimper. "He was trying to... You-"

"... Connor." Ellie stood up and wrapped her arms around Connor's shoulders to hold him close to her.

"Ellie..." Connor wanted to cry, as he remained on his knees and wrapped his burly blood-soaked arms around her small back, embracing her tightly, with his head on her upper part of her chest. He closed his eyes, feeling Ellie's hand on the back on his head, with her own head resting on top of his.

Ellie squeezed her arms around Connor, holding him tightly in her embrace.

After five minutes of them holding each other, Ellie released her arms around Connor and told him that everything was going to be fine for now on. Her face before his eyes sent Connor to finally relax, to the sight of seeing her all right.

The two managed out of the burning ship with ease, as they both limped out of the place together, leaving Charles' deformed face and body inside the ship's deck, with the knife still embedded into his broken, crushed face plate.

**Thinking back on Connor's execution on Charles Lee in the AC3 game, he should have wailed out on him, as much as Ellie did on David. With all that bottled-up anger and rage in him for so long, after Lee killed his mother and most his people, and was turning his father against him, Connor should have made Lee's death a most brutal, but memorable, one at that. That would have been pretty awesome to see.**

**This chapter is inspired by _two_ songs. First one, "Tomahawk" (by Valentin Wiest.) Second one, "Strangely Beautiful" (by Amethystium.)**


	14. Run Like Hell

**[Beckoning]**

Returning home to the homestead, Ellie and Connor were there when Achilles' was laying in bed, dying.

Ellie remained at his side, talking to him the entire time about the kidnapping Charles Lee made on her. She admitted Haytham had something to do with it, but, she knew Haytham didn't intend on callously leaving her in the care of some child rapist in the tavern. She also told him the adventure she went on, with the chase for Lee, and the burning vessel at the city harbor in New York. She also told Achilles of Charles Lee's death.

Achilles was happy to hear the extermination of Charles Lee, knowing that the Templars had not overcome the two on their adventures together. After speaking to her, Achilles wanted to speak to Connor for a moment alone.

Ellie didn't overhear the conversation much, but, she figured it was something very important. Ellie didn't want to eavesdrop on them either, because it was Achilles' last talk with Connor alone, and she didn't want to spoil it.

Right when the conversation ended, Ellie and Connor sat with Achilles at his bedside, lightening up his last moments with some puns Ellie couldn't stop thinking up, and more stories of her own past. Achilles was more than interested in knowing Ellie's past, even if it were in bits and pieces. She was more than glad to keep talking to Achilles, before he died.

And, not long after her last pun, Achilles quietly passed on.

Achilles' grave was outside the homestead front, under a large tree. His tombstone was there, engraved with his full name and when he died. His grave was buried next to someone else. She only figured that it were a family member of Achilles'.

A few days passed, and Connor was quieter, now that Achilles' was dead. Ellie was also quiet, as she thought hard to herself as to what would happen next. Of course, referring back to the history books in her own era, the Americans would win, and America would be at peace. Yet, she knew Connor wasn't happy. He was too late to save his people and his homeland, and they had vanished. British were ran out of Boston, and George Washington was president. But, it still felt like a low blow.

Outside, sitting on the cliff edge, on the side of the homestead, Ellie was having time to herself thinking. She looked down at her infected arm, that she had hidden under her long sleeves for years. She brushed her fingers over the bubbled skin, feeling nothing new.

She was thinking of Joel once more. How was he? Would she ever come out of the Animus? Was it still the exact night she and him fled from those hunters, into that cave? She didn't know.

After a while, she pulled her sleeve over her arm and put her hand over her stomach, where the wound from the recent attack stabbed her. It healed over time, with the stitches finally removed by Connor. A giant scar of what was darkened over her flat stomach, showing a sign of an aggressive past. She sighed to herself, as the air of Spring began to roll over the greenery fields, and blowing her ponytail to the side.

Ellie then remembered something Achilles' gave her. The ribbon hair-tie. She lifted her hand up and felt the ribbon, that was still in her hair, keeping her ponytail in place. Constantly, she wore it, not turning back to her old hair-tie, because Achilles gave her the ribbon. Something she didn't want to throw away and forget about. For sure, Achilles was her favorite old man.

"Hey." A voice behind her chimed.

Ellie looked over her shoulder, seeing that it wasn't Connor. Instead, it was a boy. He looked about her age, and he was white, but obviously had a strong Scottish accent in him. He dressed formally in Colonial boys' garb, but had a headful of messy, black hair. She didn't recognize him.

"Do you live here?" He asked, pointing at the homestead.

"Yeah." Ellie got up from sitting, dusting off her pants. "What's it to you?"

"Me name's Francis. I'm a son to the ladies and men over yonder, there." He pointed at a far distance, where another homestead was located. Ellie remembered the Scottish lumberjacks and their wives there. "Just thought I would come by, 'cause me ma said there was another kid here." He then gave Ellie a raise of his eyebrow. "Are you that kid?"

Ellie made a scoff. "Psh. I'm fifteen now. What're you?" But, from her time period in the fast-pacing time-warp of the Animus sending her far to the future, she was suppose to be twenty-three years of age. Yet, she remained fourteen. She only said fifteen, because of her birthday that recently passed.

"Fifteen." Francis answered. "Me friends call me Frankie, if you don't like me real name."

"Frankie sounds about legit." Ellie made a sounding smile to Frankie. "I'm Ellie."

"Ellie." Frankie repeated the name to himself. "I like it. Is it short for somethin'?"

Ellie shook her head, pressing her lips together. "Nah. Just Ellie."

Frankie was just like the blundering idiots of Scottish lumberjacks, but had the women's smarts. He was awfully blunt, and wasn't scared to say what was on his mind. He didn't swear as much, but, he was similar to what Ellie was, if she were a boy. He was the same height, weight, and age as Ellie, which was something extraordinary. But, Ellie found solace to the fact that she wasn't the only kid in the era. It felt like she was, for a long time.

Ellie and Frankie spoke to each other for a long time outside, for a good hour, until the sound of the homestead door opened.

Connor appeared, walking outside with a shovel in his hands. He looked over to where Ellie was, and saw Frankie. Immediately, he went into protective-mode.

"Ellie." Connor called Ellie's name.

Ellie looked over and saw Connor, with the shovel. Frankie looked over as well, only to be scared by Connor's intimidating stature. He quickly said a goodbye to Ellie, before rolling down the cliff-side, and darting back for his own homestead. Ellie didn't care much of it, and went to go see Connor.

"That was _Frankie_." Ellie knew why Connor called her, immediately answering his mental question. "He's a son to those lumberjacks." She pointed to the other homestead, behind the trees. "He said that he heard of me, and wanted to hang out for a while."

Connor gave daggers towards the neighboring homestead. "I will keep an eye on him..." He warned her.

"What's with the shovel?" Ellie pointed at the shovel in Connor's hands.

Connor thought hard for a moment, before he used his hand to take off a pendant around his neck. He showed Ellie the pendant. "It's just something I forgot to bury with Achilles. I know he would be most upset if I did not give this back."

Ellie looked on at the pendant, seeing it glowing with a green shine from the sunlight. She thought it were a stone necklace of some kind.

"Can I hold it?" Ellie asked. Connor obliged, handing the pendant to her.

When Ellie took the pendant into her hand, a sudden blast of light inside her brain erupted, and her body went into shock, falling over to the ground on her back with a loud thud. Her eyes remained open, widely, and her mouth parted.

Connor panicked, dropping the shovel, and ran to Ellie's side. As he called her name, Ellie's mind drifted forward into darkness...

* * *

**[Run Like Hell]**

Ellie snapped her eyes open, and saw herself in a parallel fantasy world, of endless walls of dim, orange walls that moved to the rhythm of white, glowing linings in the sky moving like ocean current. The ground was solid, but nothing familiar to concrete or dirt. It just felt solid and smooth, and extremely foreign. Ellie quickly pulled herself up to her feet and saw how the ground suddenly waved forward with white linings to her feet pressing against the ground now. She breathed in hard, unaware of what was going on, or where she had ended up.

It was nothing as a time-lapse back into a past, Ellie knew. This felt nothing close to a repeat back in time, or either a present or future. The world of unlimited ground and orange sky of digital wind and linings felt timeless, like time had not existed, or time had just stopped all together.

Before Ellie could take a step forward, the corner of her eye saw something from a distance. She quickly whipped her head to the side, and saw something almost ghostly. It was a digital gold figure of a hologram, of a man, wearing an exact outfit of Connor's assassin uniform. But, it looked vintage, and something different from the uniform Ellie was use to seeing Connor wear constantly.

"_Ey_!" The holographic man shouted towards Ellie. "_Seguimi_! _Fretta, fretta_!" The figure shouted at Ellie, in a foreign language she had no clue what was. But, with the motion of his hand gesturing at her to follow him, Ellie understood.

Ellie had to run, alongside with the hologram of the golden man of the hour. She was running fast, keeping up with him. Both ran through the endless solid ground for a while, as Ellie's eyes followed the white streaks of lifelines flying over head, and the orange light turning up higher and higher with every step she made. The man beside her was tall and lean, shadowing Ellie with just his holographic presence. Yet, he felt strangely real.

Before Ellie could make another step, a blast of lightening from the digital sky suddenly blasted, and shot down at Ellie's feet. "Holy shit!" Ellie screamed, falling forward on her face, before she immediately crawled away from the burnt mark in the digital ground. It was blackened with ash and heavy smoke. Ellie panicked, wondering if there was some sort of invisible force in the sky trying to kill her.

"Ellie!" A different voice now shouted Ellie's name. Again, it was absolutely foreign, but nothing close to the first man she encountered. Immediately, Ellie felt strong hands hoist her up to her feet easily, by hands looping underneath her armpits. When she was up, a different man appeared in front of her. He was another Assassin, but his outfit also was different. It looked like robes, with a red sash around his waist. He shouted something at her, while pointed out at the distance.

Suggesting he meant for her to keep running, Ellie did whatever she thought was right, and started running again. Ellie heard the realistic rumbles in the digital sky of an upcoming storm brewing fast, and she could hear the shouts of the robed man shouting out what dune to be commands, but not directed towards her. After his shouting ended, she suddenly heard the roar of answering men cheering and following suit to the orders.

Before Ellie, a large row of charging men, materializing out of the digital, endless wall emerge in full speed. They raised weapons, holding steel shields in their arms, and roaring victory cries, as they charged. Ellie panicked, and stopped midway to put her arms over her head, awaiting impact. But, as holographic as the other figures were, so too, were these beginning-world men. They ran straight through Ellie, as if she weren't there, just like air, and continued charging.

Ellie snapped open her eyes and looked over her shoulder at what the soldiers were charging at.

In the sky of dim orange and white streaks, there morphed a massive hand of a man's, pulling through the force of the digital sky's limits, and slowly made its way down to the oncoming soldiers. Ellie's eyes widen like saucers to the sight of the monstrous form of the giant hand materializing out of the digital sky, as it was being attacked by flying shots of lightening arrows hitting its opened palm. The movement of the giant hand of fate shook the digital orange world hard, making Ellie shake, and stumble as she tried moving forward again.

"Fuck...!" Ellie swore, falling back on her behind. It felt like a realistic earthquake, underneath her feet, as she could feel the digital solid ground shake with force.

"_Ey_! Ellie!" The same voice from before shouted at her, as she could hear the sounds of horseshoes galloping towards her. When Ellie came back to focus, she saw a white horse standing right before her. It was just as a tall, built horse's body and legs, but in a glowing silhouette of digital stature. The horse was rode by the same man from before that Ellie encountered, who also had a second digital horse gallop alongside with him, that had no rider. "_Andiamo_." He said, patting the other horse's back, as a notion for Ellie to hop on.

Quickly, after the rumbling had begun to slowly quiet down, Ellie got up and ran around to the horse's side, quickly hopping onto its back. "Go!" Ellie commanded the horse as she held the mouth strap tightly, as the horse heeded her order, beginning to charge off the direction she was trying to reach for.

The holographic man followed suit, shouting something that sounded like, "_Victoria_!"

Oddly, the digital horse felt completely real, in some sort of realism-likeness. It felt like riding a normal horseback, but, digitalized.

As Ellie and the confident holographic man ventured forth into the endless trail, to where ever the ground took them, the new sound of wood scraping hard against the surface of the digital ground grinded through Ellie's ears. She looked over to her right, and saw that there was a dark figure swimming underneath the solid ground itself. As if it were a enormous shark, inside of a closed glass tank, following her and the digital man's pace to their unknown destination.

Finally, in utmost shock of force, the shadow underneath the surface blasted through the glass ground. Large shards of the digital surface broke loose, flying into the air, shimmering through the unknown source of light in the orange sky. A massive form of a pirate ship's nose materialized out of the hole in the glass ground, erupting the world with its intrusion. When the entire vessel came onto surface, it sliced through the glass ground like paper, with shards of glass breaking free and raining bright lights.

The entire body of the vessel was massive and standing fifty feet high. Ellie was astonished, unable to keep her eyes off the ship's body. It reminded her whole-heartedly of the Aquila, but this one was drenched with ocean water, black flags, and a pirate crew that was roaring out in cheers and shouts as the captain emerged from his quarters. The man aboard was someone in a white Assassin's uniform, with bright blonde hair, that Ellie remembered well from a dream she had.

"Man the canons!" Edward's voice ordered out strongly, as the crew heeded and manned the canons, loading them, positioning them for fire.

Edward raised more orders, as he pointed at the large hand in the digital sky. The crew of soldiers fighting the hand suddenly evaporated into the still air, before Edward shouted out permission to fire.

Canon fire rung out with a bang, with lightening bolts streaking through the sky from the canons, and darting straight into the opened palm of the hand that still chased after Ellie. Sparks of lightening flew out and bolted the palm of the hand, drawing it back with the blasts. Smokes of remains debris in the smoked orange skin of the giant hand, as it drew back slightly from the raging pain. The inhuman sound of a distorted voice of a man or creature's leaked out from the shaky sky, as it made the white streaks disappear for good.

The entire flight, Ellie kept wondering what was going on. She only had these holographic men to follow, that were speaking foreign languages she was unfamiliar with, due to the fact that foreigners didn't exist where she was from in her own era. But, she could only trust them, because they were saving her hide from the thirty-feet hand trying to grab at her, and likely squeeze the living daylights out of her petite form.

As Ellie rode alongside with the digital Assassin that was pointing out directions for her to follow through, while dodging incoming falls of digitalized, faded stars from above that were crashing down from the destruction of their skyworld being obliterated by the hand, Edward followed suit with their speed, as he commanded more of his pirate men to load out the canon guns with more lightening bolts and fireballs.

The shout of the other foreigner Ellie remembered as the man wearing a red sash around his waist screamed out from the ship. Materializing on deck, the robed Assassin was shouting something in his language at Ellie and the horseback Assassin with her. He pointed ahead, spotting what seemed like a black vortex into another realm. White linings of graphs and stars inside the vortex told much on its next escape for Ellie to use, once she made it fast towards the new world.

As Ellie and the Assassin horseman rode forth to their destination, the pirate ship was commanded to pull back, with the control of Edward's hold on the steering wheel of the vessel. The pirate ship shook waves of rumbles through the shattering glass ground, as it made a hard turn to its right, turning back to fight the hand of fate, head on. The man in robes and sash stayed on deck, as he lastly watched Ellie and the horseman approach the black-hole.

Once closed into the black-hole entrance, Ellie and the Assassin jumped off the horses and jogged towards the vortex, while being accompanied by the storm of war going on in the background, behind them. Ellie looked into the vortex herself, seeing that it was a wave of lightening bolts, stars and feathers inside flying about, streaming through the darkness in lightening speed.

"Go, hurry!" The Assassin suddenly spoke English. "You've got to hurry!"

Ellie threw a hard glare at the man. "You're speaking English, you asshole!" She screamed at him, while feeling her shoulder being grabbed by his large hand. "What the fuck is through this vortex anyways?!"

"Everything you need to be told." The man said, in the most calming, yet strong, tone of voice, that almost calmed down Ellie's frustration. "The truth, _amica_."

"... What truth?" Ellie asked, as the wind picked up throughout the vortex, and thunder blasted through the darkness, exploding with fury.

"You'll see!" The Assassin suddenly picked up Ellie, with his arm looped under her back, and looping his other arm under the bends of her knees, lifting her feathery weight up easily, in front of the wide vortex. "Forgive me!" He lastly shouted, before tossing Ellie into the fray of darkness and thunderbolts, stars and glowing feathers following her flight through the tunnel of zero gravity, that pulled her through the raindrops.

As she felt deep, the entrance of the vortex closed up with a swallow, gulping down Ellie into the pit of the unknown world ahead.

**A chase to the truth, as Ellie enters a parallel world of uncertainty and unknown. What will the truth be, when she gets there?**

**Ellie unknowingly meets other figurative icons from the Creed: _Ezio Auditore da Firenze_ and _Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad_.**

**What will happen next in her epic journey? Find out more, in the next chapter! :)**


	15. The Truth Of Us

**[Dawn Of Hope]**

Falling flat on her side, Ellie landed into the darkness. The vortex spit her out, and closed up immediately when she hit the black-marble ground.

"Aw, fuck!" Ellie wailed, clutching her side that she landed on. The unforgiving ground of marble was solid as thick glass. Smooth at touch, but agonizingly hurtful to plummet down onto. She sucked in air from between her clenched teeth as she pulled herself up to her feet. Looking around her surroundings, Ellie could only scan out that she was plummeted into a pit of darkness, with no sight of walls or ground.

Bravely, she extended her hand out, and began walking forward, trying to feel for any figure of object in front of her, or a wall. The only thing she was certain of was that there was a ground beneath her feet, but it didn't help the fact that she was stumbling through the dark blindly. Ellie kept her wits up, and eyes opened, as she continued forth through the black dimension that called out to her.

While taking big steps forward, still with her extended hand out, and walking blind through the dark, she was suddenly shocked, when she heard a voice from above the pitch-black sky suddenly speaking to her.

"Child." It was a woman's voice, that sounded thick with accent, and strength. "Listen, as you move forward."

"Who's there?" Ellie shouted out, stopping at her tracks. "Come out!"

"Not yet." The voice warned Ellie. "You must continue moving. I will explain everything as you move."

Ellie felt a cold sweat-drop run down the side of her face, nervously. Yet, Ellie moved her shaky legs forward into the darkness.

"Years ago, in the human world of yours, when everything was normal and rosy, there was a man named Desmond Miles, who held the decision of choosing what was right for mankind. He has spent years trying to find the truth of the universe, and how to save it for total obliteration."

Before Ellie, a hue of soft white light bloomed in the darkness, as it materialized a holographic figure of what looked like a young man, wearing a white jacket and blue jeans. Ellie figured this was the image of who Desmond Miles was. One she knew well, from reading books on his adventures, in her own era.

"Desmond Miles always chose not to follow his heritage, because he wanted to be himself in the world. But, he was the only one that held total knowledge of his ancestors' footsteps ions ago, who fought against the strong that called themselves Templars. Using the Animus to unveil the truth in his ancestors' minds, he discovered secrets and knowledge, finding only pieces of the missing treasure of Eden. One that could save the world, from destruction.

The Assassins have fought with the Templars for thousands of years to come. To this day, even in the obliteration of your own world as it is, with the infected and wounded still about, Assassins and Templar still fight on."

"... Whoa!" Ellie exclaimed quietly, as she followed the white-glowing silhouette of Desmond Miles through the darkness. "They're still fighting? But, where?" Ellie asked, as she imaged the broken city of Pittsburgh in her mind, seeing the familiar sight of its fallen world. "Is there... a lot of them?"

"You should know. Your father was one." The voice said to Ellie.

Ellie made a confused look on her face, before scoffing. "Pssh. No, he wasn't... I don't even know what he was."

"When the annihilation of the world erupted twenty years ago, when that false Queen, called Juno, took all control of humanity and destroyed it, your father was in the destruction. But, he was the only one that knew _why _it had begun." The voice spoke as if Ellie were suppose to know the truth herself, but, Ellie had no clue as to where the unknown person was aiming for. "When Desmond chose to make the decision of believing in Juno's lies, when she promised him the universe to be saved for his sacrifice, it only opened Pandora's Box upon the world.

People were killed. Murdered. _Infected_, by the pouring reign of her utopia of total conquer. Juno was the cause of the end.

All hope felt lost, as we had begun to slowly lose faith in society and humanity. Even if the Assassins and Templars continued to fight for peace and finding a way to save the world from its state of vulnerability, it felt like nothing was left for them.

William Miles, Desmond's father, stayed in the apocalypse for four years, meeting a woman that went by the name of Anna. The two had survived together for those many years, before something sparked in their deep friendship... At that night of passion, Anna had become pregnant, with _you_, Ellie."

Ellie stopped at her tracks, frozen now. Her hands closed together, as an unsure gesture of thought. Ellie was hearing this, but, she couldn't believe quite enough of it.

The figure of Desmond Miles disappeared, and light materialized into three new figures.

One was of Ellie's mother, Anna, and her father she thought left her, William. In her mother's arms, she saw an infant, wrapped up warmly in a blanket. Ellie watched the two parents talk, inaudibly, to each other. Anna was laying in a hospital bed, as William stood at her beside, while Anna repeatedly looked down at what was baby Ellie.

When the time came, Anna handed over baby Ellie to William. Carefully, William cradled the baby girl in his arms, taking a moment to look down at the infant's rosy face for a while, until the sound of the lifeline monitor dropped flat, as Anna's body suddenly went slump. William looked back to Anna's still face, covering his mouth in utmost horror, while baby Ellie was cooing happily to see her father's face.

"... Shit..." Ellie didn't know what to think, as she swore under her breath quietly. She watched as William tried hard to regroup his thoughts, immediately taking baby Ellie with him, in his arms, as he left the hospital room. "... William Miles is my dad..." Ellie told herself, with innermost disbelief. "... That means-"

"Desmond Miles is your _half_-brother." The unknown woman's voice finished Ellie's answer. "Yes. You are right."

Ellie continued walking forward, once the glowing white figures evaporated into thin air, now starting to feel unafraid as she marched forward into the darkness. She had her arms down to her side, and eyes forward, with her mind in shambles of the truth coming out to the light. She couldn't collect them fast enough, as the unknown source of power was beginning to conjure another past event before Ellie's eyes.

In front of her, as a digital landscape of a forest, Ellie saw the holographic figures of an older William walking through the dirt path, with a loaded rifle strapped to his back, as he escorted a three-year-old Ellie with him at his side. The two looked as if they were in complete happiness, as they could spend quality daughter-to-father time together, as they hunted through the woods to find bigger wildlife animals to kill for meat.

When Ellie saw William, she saw a different person, from how he looked in the historic novels she read on his description. William was aged to sixty-two, but still looked like he was still fifty years of age. He still had a strong stature and strength in himself to keep surviving through the infection apocalypse. He was aged through the fights, the gunfires, and the constant paranoia of infected trying to kill him and younger Ellie.

"He looked out for you. He loved you, as his own daughter." The woman said to Ellie, as she continued watching William and her younger form sit down on a long log and talk to each other. The two heartedly laughed together when younger Ellie made a joke, hearing William laugh with a grin on his face. "He never once brought up Desmond, to no one. Not even Anna, or Marlene, or anyone else he put his trust into. He wanted him to be kept a secret, as he started a new life with his daughter.

But, rumors of William Miles' still alive, and in the apocalypse, circulated fast from friends that knew William Miles, and it eventually reached Abstergo..."

The darkness lit up into a different dimension, where it visually exposed a room that looked like a safe house's. Younger Ellie was asleep at a worn-out couch, sitting up, leaning over to her side and curled at William's side, as he was also asleep on the couch, sitting up, both snoring softly at the same slow rhythm. The world at that moment felt extremely calm and relaxed, as the sound of chattering from citizens below the building went about, and the air was slow and still with coolness.

But, then, a younger Marlene barged into the room, frantically running to William. "William!" Marlene shook William awake, grabbing his shoulders. "A bunch of men, calling themselves Abstergo, are outside... below the building, looking for you...!" It made William's eyes snap open fast.

Immediately he got up, and went for his long gun and ammo sitting on a wooden table surface. Marlene went to younger Ellie, calming her down as she began to stir awake. Once William strapped on his gun and pocketed his ammo, he went to Marlene.

"Marlene, whatever you do - keep Ellie out of sight...! Get her out of this safe house, and find a different place to hide her-"

"What about you?!" Marlene demanded with a shout, as she picked up Ellie in her arms. "You can't fight those fuckers alone!"

"... I know." William replied with a heavy sigh. "But, those fuckers want an old score to settle with me. Marlene, they want _me_. I can't let them see Ellie! If they do, they'll kill her, too!" William was now becoming fumed with the fear and anger of the Abstergo readied to find him, and capture him. "And, I _will not _let those bastards lay a finger on that little girl. You understand?" He gave Marlene a hard stare, that was full of desperation.

Younger Ellie opened up her eyes, and looked up at her father. "Dad?" She asked for, in her small voice. "Dad?"

"Hey, you..." William stepped closer to put his hand over Ellie's head, brushing her bangs aside. "I'm going to be leaving somewhere soon, okay?" He told her, while younger Ellie rubbed her right-eye with a tiny hand. "I'll... be back soon. Marlene's just going to be watching over you for a while." He was lying through his teeth, as much as it pained him straight through his beating heart to say lies into his daughter's face. "It won't be long." He leaned in and gave a hard kiss on Ellie's forehead.

When he pulled back, he looked up to Marlene, and gave her a silent nod. Marlene didn't want to leave William behind, knowing well that he couldn't stand against the odds of so many armed Abstergo men awaiting for his arrival. But, she didn't want Ellie harmed, either. She cradled younger Ellie in her arms, and gave a silent nod back to him, before she and Ellie ran out a secondary door of the safe house.

When Marlene stepped out the doorway, Ellie lastly shouted towards William, "I love you, dad!" as she waved goodbye to him. As she unknowingly gave her last farewell to her father, that she would never see again.

William waved back to Ellie, as he watched Marlene run outside to find a different flight of stairs off of the rooftop the safe house was located on.

When they disappeared, William took a shaky breath, feeling his shoulders shake slightly, before exhaling heavily. He turned around to the other closed door of the safe house, hearing the heavy footsteps of armed Abstergo men approaching fast. He unstrapped the long gun from his back, and started reloading it with new bullets from his pocket. When it was full, he cocked it back, and raised it up to aim at the closed door, preparing fire.

"Juno sought to destroy whatever was left of the lifeline of the Assassins. Nothing mattered about them any longer, except for their domination to try stopping the chaos. Abstergo did not understand. They continued to want control of the world, the way it was. William Miles was the last of the Assassins... or so they thought.

His legacy. Their legacies, as well, carried out with you, Ellie.

You survived the runaway from Abstergo, and was taken under Marlene's care for years. She had no choice, but to lie to you, about what happened to your father. She had to, in order for you to not go out and search for him. He never hated you, though. He wouldn't give up his life, in order for you to live, if he didn't love you that much."

When the scenery vanished into digital dust, Ellie couldn't help but tear up. Her heart felt heavy, and her mind was now coming together from its shambles. She had longed to know what happened to her father, and now, she finally saw, for her own very eyes, of what demise he met, when he had to leave her side. Ellie felt her heart lift a few times, though, as the truth of not hating her came to light. For years, she thought he left her because it was her fault Anna died, but now, it was the opposite.

"Assassins and Templars still ruled to this day, fighting against each other to find truth and light. You have been under the shadows for ages, unbeknownst to their knowledge that you are a cure to save this world! You are _the last of us_..."

Ellie knew what the woman was referring to. She looked down to her arm, pulling up her long sleeve, to look at her bitten arm.

"A cure lingers in you, child. You are what's left to save this world from total obliteration! You must do this, to save all, and bring back peace..."

"But..." Ellie then chimed in, raising her voice to let the woman hear her. "What if I can't find the Fireflies on time? What if I can't make it?" She wanted to know the answer to the question she always dreaded to ask in the past.

"If you fail to find the humans, that call themselves Fireflies, that will extract the cure from you, hunt find the Assassins. Their own knowledge is equally powerful, if not divine. They will take you in, and find the cure from you as well."

"... Okay." Ellie quietly nodded, pulling her sleeve over her infected arm slowly. "... Okay."

"You may wake to your own world soon, child. You will be back-"

"W-Wait a minute!" Ellie suddenly shouted out, stopping her. "I want to say something to Connor, before I go!"

"Ah," The woman nodded to herself. "Your grandfather of the revolutionary war... Why?"

"I just can't leave him, making him think I died or something!" Ellie exclaimed, shrugging her arms heavily. "I've got to tell him something, like a damn goodbye or a decent reassurance that I'm fine, before I'm going to leave him soon...!"

A deep silence dropped over the darkness, as Ellie awaited the woman's response. She nervously waited, bouncing up on her feet in confusion and excitement of the truth she was told. Everything ran through Ellie's mind fast, as she thought of the family that was around before her. Never had she once thought her heritage was something extraordinary. Let alone, something no one else could ever have.

"Fine." The woman finally answered. "A few hours, and you will be back to your real world once more..."

**A chapter wholly inspired by the song "Jane's Lament".**

**You know what this means, don't you? ... Ellie has an older half-brother, a loving father, and a shitload of granddads! HAPPINESS.**

**More to come, in the _final_ chapter of this epic journey... soon!**


	16. The End Of Us

**[Waking Up]**

Inside of the homestead, when it had dawned to morning, Connor was still slumbering, sitting in an armchair at the bedside of Ellie's, as he waited all night for her to wake up. Worried to death of her condition that happened so suddenly, Connor had let her lay down in her bed in her room, while he had a chair pulled up to her bedside, anxiously awaiting for her to open her eyes and tell him she was all right. He had been there since yesterday evening.

When morning light shone quietly into the room, Connor was beginning to stir awake to the sounds of shuffling. Pages in a novel turning.

He woke, groaning with a small pain numbing his arm for a moment, as he slowly opened his eyes with a yawn. When he opened them, he was shocked to see Ellie sitting up in bed, reading a novel on symbolism and zodiac signs. Ellie mumbled words from the novel she was reading to herself, not noticing Connor awake. When Connor flinched to the sight of Ellie up and feeling fine, Ellie finally looked over to him.

"Hey, dude!" Ellie greeted him with a smile on her face. "This book is full of weird things about horoscopes and birth symbols... I was looking for yours!" Ellie glanced down at her opened novel again, flipping a few pages ahead. "Hey, what month were you born on, anyways?" She looked back up to Connor's astonished-filled face, with her playful wide, green eyes, as she still smiled at him.

Connor, unsure of what to really say, only made a chuckle under his breath. "... I was born in August." He said, still in awe-struck silence to Ellie's full recovery.

Ellie's eyes shined. "Hey! So was I!" She nodded once and went back to her novel, turning a few pages backwards to find the chapter for May. When she found it, she read the description. "You are a _Leo_ - you are leadership-worthy, respectful, and have total loyalty to those who give loyalty back, and would do anything to keep your friends and loved ones safe. Beware - you are also very stubborn, blunt, rather over-confident, and always unafraid to say what's on your mind. Even if you're so confident, you would always prefer to never be alone..."

Connor and Ellie, in unison, made snorts to the description.

"I never believe in those novels." Connor admitted, as he carefully took the novel out of Ellie's hands. He closed the book and placed it on the nightstand table. "... Ellie, what happened yesterday?" He finally asked quietly. "You were thrown into a shock when that pendant was in your hand..." He shifted his eyes up to her. "Was it some sort of defect, of any kind I should know of?"

Ellie, unsure herself of what to really respond, only evaded the question quietly. "Maybe... stress? Overdrive on the whole war going on before? Who knows..." She shrugged lightly with her shoulders. Connor didn't know what else to say, nor want to press on, due to the fact that Ellie had no real answer for her black-out.

With a sigh, Connor got up from the armchair, and told Ellie, "I'm going to be visiting the Mohawk Valley soon... Would you like to partake on the trip?"

Interested in knowing a little more of Connor's mysterious home-valley she had never visited before, since the fast-pacing course of nine years at his side, she had decided to take the chance and go with him on the long trip.

* * *

**[A Friend's Strength]**

The Mohawk Valley wasn't all that Ellie imagined it to be, when she arrived to the outdoors. It was emptied, with abandoned barn houses, shacks and walls. There was no Native American soul in sight, which Ellie was most disappointed to see. She had wanted to meet the people that had raised Connor, but it was too late now. Nothing was damaged or wrecked. Buildings were kept up and the walls surrounding the village were untouched. It seemed that the Native Tribe were quietly escorted out of the village with no force. They just packed up everything and left.

It was eerily quiet as well. As peaceful as the wilderness was to the outdoor village, the place reeked with something hiding within. Something that flowed heavily with what felt like loss, mourning, silence, grief. Sadness. Smoke from a large bonfire was lightly streaming from the ashes, into the air, giving the idea that the tribe must have left hours ago. But, not short enough to chase after them. They were most likely phantoms now, in the wild.

"This place is huge." Ellie said aloud, as Connor walked ahead to lead Ellie through the village. "How long did you live here?"

"I had lived here since I was thirteen. I left at that age, to go train with Achilles." Connor answered quietly.

"Oh." Ellie nodded her head, while still looking up to her left-and-right at the long shacks they were walking past. "Some of the buildings look kinda old and new... Were your people recreating some of them?" Ellie asked curiously.

"Yes. After that attack of Charles Lee destroyed the village, we recreated everything from scratch." Connor explained.

"Is that when you lost your mother?" Ellie asked, sounding a little unsure of bringing up the past to Connor.

But, Connor did not evade the question from her. "Yes, it was." Connor nodded, glancing at Ellie from over his shoulder. "One of these buildings are recreated, after she had... burned alive inside it. We gave her a proper burial, when we found her body..."

Ellie pressed her lips together firmly, shifting her eyes down to the ground she walked along. She twisted her hands together thoughtfully. "I... can't imagine losing someone like that... Losing everything you know... I'm sorry, Connor." Ellie apologized, on her behalf of pity for him.

Connor exhaled quietly to himself, hearing Ellie's words reach out to him tenderly. "It is fine, Ellie." Connor quietly responded back.

The two made their way into an abandoned barn-house, finding that the place was dark with little light from the opened double doors to the barn shining in. Connor and Ellie stepped inside, feeling the chilled air of the darkness engulf them from the bright sunlight outside. Ellie looked up at the high ceiling, before her eyes fell back down to empty horse posts and stacks of chopped wood cluttering the barn walls. It had scent of horse inside, but was faded and almost unrecognizable.

When the two had reached the other side of the long barn, Connor spotted a familiar wooden box.

Ellie paid no mind to it, as she set her sights of a couple of broken blades on the opposite side of the barn wall. She sat down and pieced the blade shards together.

"Why would they leave this behind?" Connor asked himself quietly, as he pulled open the top of the box, to find an orb inside.

When he picked it up, the world surrounding him shot down into a stilled universe of darkness, with only the powerful, golden glow from the orb he held. He was not phased by this sight of fantasy, for he had visited this world before, ions ago...

Ellie was still paying no mind to what Connor was doing, for she was not sucked into the dark realm. Instead, she was still in the barn, picking up the shards of broken blade pieces from the ground, piecing them together playfully, as if she were playing a puzzle-piecing game. Easily, she mended the blade pieces together, but couldn't take it with her. It had no substance to glue it together, so it was worthless.

Setting it back down onto the ground, Ellie was about to stand up and dust her pant-leggings off, when suddenly, the blade itself started to glow brightly. Its small stature was warped in a golden light, morphing into a squared piece of paper before Ellie's very eyes. Shimmers of glow dust was drifting off of the light, as it shaped itself into a flimsy piece of worn-out paper, that was scribbled on with writings.

Once the glow evaporated, Ellie picked up the letter, and read it for herself.

_Holy shit_. Ellie thought to herself, with innermost shock.

The piece of paper was a written letter to Ellie, from a person referring themselves as Joel. It was a well-written letter of explaining his whereabouts, in Utah. It was everything that said Joel was alive and well, now in Utah, awaiting for Ellie to arrive back as soon as possible, to be reunited again.

A letter Ellie could use to tell Connor that she had to depart... and said goodbye.

A letter most likely Minerva, the unknown source in the dark realm, had conjured up to make Connor believe it.

"Ellie?" Connor finally spoke up, after the evaporation of the golden orb had vanished from his hand. He saw her sitting on the ground, reading the letter over and over again. "Ellie, what is that?" Connor asked for her again.

Ellie stood up from where she sat, scratching the back of her neck a little nervously, as she handed over the letter to Connor.

When Connor read over the letter, seeing the name of Joel, he looked back up to Ellie. "My God..." He was utterly speechless, with his eyes full of confusion and disbelief. "Is this... Is this the Joel you knew before?"

"Yeah... I know his hand-writing anywhere." She took the letter from Connor's hand. "There's only one guy in the world, that I know, writes a 'J' like this." She looked over the signature Joel left. It was the perfect signature of Joel's real sincerely, with a heavily inked 'J' and lightly written 'oel' at the end. "I... I knew for fucking sure that he was okay. I just knew it." Ellie folded up the paper and put it in her waistcoat pocket. "He's in Utah..."

Connor kept his eyes on Ellie's, studying them. "That is literally across the country..."

As sense of tension rose in the air, between the two, as Ellie shifted her eyes up at Connor's, while she exhaled quietly. "It is." She nodded lightly.

"Does he expect you to just cross the country, on your own?" Connor was beginning to sound outraged, by the slightest.

Ellie scoffed. "Pssh. We've travelled across-country before, Connor. It was how we ended up in New York in the first place." She shrugged her arms up. "It's not like I can't do it again, but by myself." She could see something in Connor's eyes churning thickly. It looked like bewilderedness, with a hint of anger. "Connor, don't give me that look." Ellie shook her head at him. "I want to see Joel again. I _have_ to do this."

"Then, I should help escort you there!" Connor suggested strongly.

"Connor, no." Ellie declined whole-heartedly. "You can't just fucking leave Boston and New York. There's still people here that need you!"

"They can wait." Connor threw out.

"A _whole fucking year_, Connor?" Ellie exclaimed. Connor made a look of disbelief, with his eyes halfway wide with shock. "Yeah! It took a _whole year_ to just get here. Looking for some guy named Thomas Jefferson, but he's probably dead by now. When we got found by those red coat chickenshits, we had to separate. I ran to your homestead, and Joel went elsewhere. That's how it happened." Ellie took a deep breath, after her ranting, seeing that Connor was still giving her the same look.

"How come I cannot go with you?" Connor then asked. "Do you fear that I may not be able to withstand an entire journey across the country, for a whole year? Ellie, I can handle myself on such trivial grounds as well, if you must have forgotten!"

"Because I _can't _take you with me!" Ellie finally admitted with a shout. "Okay? I can't fucking take you with me! It's not the road meant for you to be on. It's only mine. You can't just leave your world, and just march into mine!" Ellie gave Connor a hard look on her face. "You... _don't _want to step into my world, Connor... You just don't want to."

Heavy air of tension dumbed down onto their shoulders hard. Ellie took a deep breath, rubbing her hands over her face in frustration. She didn't want to fight with Connor, if it was going to be her final hours at his side. She wanted a good farewell with no tension between them.

Connor exhaled deeply, looking at Ellie with daggers. "What makes your world so different from my broken one, Ellie? ... I have failed my people, and failed a whimsical-saving the other people in my life, that I had thought stood by my side. Even my father betrayed me. _Everyone _I loved has either died, left me, or had tried to kill me! Everybody, I tried to live for, had vanished," He pointed furiously at Ellie. "except for _you_!" He barked.

And for once, Ellie found herself unable to speak up.

"So, do not tell me that your world is different from mine, because, the truth is, I... HAVE NOTHING left to live for!" He finally admitted with a shaky, heart-broken, shout.

It felt like the world had come to a halt, to Connor's defensive shout. He had gone to make his point, and it was all sadly true. He had nothing left to live for, ever since the war had ended, and many allies and friends he knew had vanished or had abandoned him. His people were no longer wanting him in their tribe, because they felt him to be a deceiver to the Mohawk People. Both his parents were killed, and leaders had fallen to his blade. Connor had absolutely no point in moving forward.

Yet, he still had Ellie at his side, who had always been, for years. Ellie knew it, too, but didn't want it to be true. She had hoped Connor had a higher cause in Boston and New York to fight for, which he did. He had to help liberate the remainder of slaves still locked up as servants. As important as that was, Connor had begun to affectionately hold onto Ellie, as family, and wanted nothing more, than to keep her safe and sound.

Not to fail once again.

Before Ellie could say something to reassure Connor, a voice from outside the barn-house hollered out at both of them.

"Hey! You two!" It was a blue-coat soldier. "This land is private property now! Get out, right now!" He ordered loudly.

As told, the two made their way out of the land, as more blue-coats marched into the territory to start claiming the buildings and walls. Ellie walked out together, but in the innermost silence of their thoughts speaking for themselves. Ellie was quietly walking behind Connor, as she followed his lead out of the land, and back onto different grounds. She watched as some of the blue-coats had begun to take over the territory, but, Connor paid no mind to it. He just kept his hood on, and looked forward, but his eyes were shifted to the ground once in a while, to think of what Ellie said.

The walk back to the homestead was a while, through their silence, as they could only hear the sounds of nature chiming. Ellie's heart grew heavy by every passing minute, as she would frequently glance up at the back of Connor's head, and think of him and his own feelings.

It only processed into her mind that their heated argument was something ironically similar to an argument she had with Joel, back in her own world, when she literally poured out her heart of everything she feared most, of being alone, and losing him. Connor was the exact way, if not more stubborn and persistent. He didn't want to lose her, just because she didn't trust herself enough to take him on her journey.

She only didn't want him to tag along, because she knew their adventure out into the world would not be a long one. She was only given a few hours of her life in his world, before she would be transported back into her own realm. Yet, she couldn't help but think it wasn't overall correct to just leave Connor behind, on his own. He could hold up by himself, but, Ellie knew what he felt, losing someone close.

Upon arriving on a log bridge, man-made by the lumberjacks, Ellie and Connor quietly walked along the bridge together.

Ellie inhaled deeply, rolling her shoulders slightly, as she looked up at the sky.

"It looks really sunny out today." Ellie exhaled loudly. "And, a lot of those soldiers are out... It would be a shame to run into them, on the travel." She began to quietly suggest something, which Connor was catching on to. Ellie stopped on the bridge to look over, down into the river. "Plus, there's going to be a ton of them outside of Massachusetts... it would be a hassle on getting through them."

Connor stopped on his pace to turn around to Ellie. "Probably spreading countrywide, as well." Connor snorted, with a small smile.

"'Could seriously need help on getting out onto the country." She shrugged her shoulders heavily.

Connor gave Ellie a wide smile. Ellie chuckled, also smiling back at him.

* * *

**[End Of My Journey]**

Crossing the country was one thing. There was no ocean to follow, therefore, they would have to use the entire country land to navigate through. Ellie knew where the head, but, she knew it would just take longer than three months on a pirate ship. On foot, it would take up the entire year. Horseback would be fast, but they would have to constantly change horses on every destination, due to the fact that horses couldn't travel as far as most people thought they could.

Marching out of Boston on horseback, Ellie and Connor were both out of the city, and onto greenery land and countryside of Massachusetts. Both were carrying satchels over their shoulders, and armed with weapons they've collected over the years in the war. Ellie was still accompanied with her machete, switchblade, and her one-shot pistols. Connor had his own gears, as well as a new hidden blade he had created on his own.

"We will have to head West." Connor mentioned, as the two on their horses walked down the long trail afar from the city walls now.

"Oh, that reminds me." Ellie let go of the horse strap for a moment to dig into her jeans pocket. "I got this map from Benjamin Franklin, before we left." Ellie opened up the folded map and handed it to Connor.

"How did you acquire this?" Connor asked curiously, taking the map from her.

"Uh..." Ellie glanced away for a moment. "I kinda stole it... I mean, the guy was just letting it sit there!"

Connor sighed, looking over the handmade country map. "Anything else I should be acknowledged about?" He asked.

Ellie went back to her satchel. "Well, this novel... but I finished it a while ago." Ellie grabbed her satchel and unhooked it, taking out a thick book. "Look. This one's called Breaking Dawn. Something about a vampire guy and human girl having a baby together."

Connor furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "I thought vampires were immortal?"

"Pft." Ellie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they are. But, this one says his junks still functional." Both of them laughed together to the ridiculous fictional novel. "I'm not carrying this anymore. You want to read it?" Ellie asked Connor. He shook his head. Ellie took the thick book in both her hands and tossed it out to the countryside bed at her side, watching it roll down the steep, short hill. "Bye-bye, dead guy!" She waved farewell to the tumbling book.

"Okay," says Connor, "It seems a bridge is coming into view." He nodded his head straight ahead, towards a large stone bridge, where a small patch of folks were at, chatting or looking over the bridge.

"Cool!" Ellie saw the large structure of stone ahead. "Race you!" Ellie suddenly dared, before she shouted, "C'mon!" to her horse. The horse heeded her command, picking up the pace to start galloping fast towards the bridge. "I'm going to the middle of the bridge!" Ellie mentioned aloud to Connor.

Connor felt no need to chase after her.

At the midst of the wide stone bridge, Ellie stopped her horse and jumped off. She then went to the railing of the bridge to look down, seeing a large flow of river water dead below. It was flowing smoothly with the wind, as it streamed downward towards a countryside ahead. The water was deep, but it didn't seem so, since there were heads of rocks sticking out of the water surface, being coated with streams of water from the crashing, tiny waves against them.

But, the sight was beautiful in the sun, and Ellie was transfixed for the moment to stand there, and look on.

"Grab her!" A man standing a few feet away from Ellie suddenly shouted out. Ellie whipped around, only to be grabbed at her forearms by two nameless men.

"Connor?!" Ellie screamed Connor's name for help.

On-lookers of the situation were standing back, looking on in horror or complete bewilderedness. None knew what was happening, as it started so suddenly.

"Stop him!" One of the capturers shouted at a third man, that was awaiting for Connor to approach. To his own demise, Connor charged in, still on horseback, and the horse plummeted the man down onto his back, stomping its hooves into his chest and stomach, without knowledge of killing him. The third man was down and wounded greatly.

Connor raced towards the bridge on horse, trampling one man standing in front of the horse to try stopping it. Connor jumped off the horse and unsheathed his hidden blades, marching up towards the two men that grabbed her.

"Don't come onto us too fast, lad!" The second capturer shouted fast, unsheathing a loaded one-shot pistol from his pocket, and pointed the loaded barrel at the side of Ellie's head. "Any funny business, and the lass gets one in the head." He threatened, cocking the pistol back, making Ellie flinch to the loud mechanical sound.

"What the fuck do you want?!" Connor shouted, unwillingly taking a step back from the capturers.

"To finish what the Templars started." The first capturer answered, grabbing the back of Ellie's hair to pull her head up and look at Connor. "She knows a secret about the storehouse hidden in these parts! We want to take her in, nice and quietly, without any bloodshed." The men, now unveiled to be Templar, kept Ellie close to them, as they continued to tell Connor to back up. "We don't want her to be taken out of this place! We know where she's heading, and she ain't leaving!"

"Shut up!" Connor screamed. "There is nothing in that storehouse valuable for you to witness! All there is, is nothingness!" Connor was fuming, in rage and fright. "I had seen it for myself. There is nothingness!" Connor tried assuring them, as he saw the second capturer press the barrel of the gun hard against Ellie's head.

"Well, I don't believe you!" The first capturer shouted at Connor.

"You should, asshole!" Ellie screamed at him. "I saw nothing there, too! It's a big waste of fucking time!"

Both the capturers heard Ellie's own fact on the storehouse place, and the two looked at each other unsurely. Obviously, a lie that Connor and Ellie were trying to cooperate together mentally, trying hard not to look suspicious over the false allegation they conjured.

The second capturer suddenly became irritated with the idea of their plan being a complete waste of valuable time they had on their hands. "Fuck this, then." He whipped the gun at Connor and shot blindly at his knee. It hit his knee, skinning through his cap like a blade, enough to make Connor flinch and stop his plotted pursuit for a split second. The capturer then dropped his gun and made the other capturer quickly hoist Ellie's feathery weight up and over the bridge railing.

"NO!" Connor screamed, regrouping himself, running towards the three with his hidden blade unsheathed again.

Before he could reach out for Ellie, she was already tossed off the bridge hard. Connor used both his unsheathed hidden blades and jabbed the knives into the backs of the capturers' heads, slamming their faces down onto the railing, crushing their face plates in deep, as Connor frantically looked over the bridge.

Ellie was plummeting fast towards the river, falling backwards, as she watched Connor's face look on at her fall in horror. Her left-hand extended out to him, as she felt her body becoming light with the air shoving her downwards into the rocky stream. She couldn't scream, because of the intense ringing in her ears that kept everything suddenly silenced with just the screeching sound of her finale coming to a show. It felt like time had come down to a slow motioning pace, watching as Connor screamed Ellie's name, but she couldn't hear him through her deafened ears.

It all came down to a sudden change of pace once again, when Ellie finally collided with the rocky depths of the river. Her back smashed against the rocks, and the back of her head landed on a rock head, blasting through her cranium. Her body was engulfed in the intense rage of pain shooting through her body when she felt the waves of the river splash over her fallen form, and her throat close up to the unimaginable pain strangling her tightly. Her spine tore into two, and the back of her skull was cracked.

A warp of wind sliced through Ellie's deafened ears, as the sounds came back, and she could finally hear Connor screaming in pure horror to the sight of blood streaming from Ellie's fallen form, into the clear riverbank water.

Connor quickly found a way downward to the riverbank, using a steep hill to carry him down, and jumped into the rocky river to march his way to Ellie's body. He saw Ellie's face becoming pale, and her skin turning color. But, she was still breathing, in a shallow notion. When Connor quickly knelt down next to her, wrapping his hand underneath the small of her back, to try lifting her upper-body up carefully, but to no avail.

Ellie bellowed out cries when she felt pressure meet with her torn spine, as her small hand gripped at the front of Connor's right shoulder, and her other one grip at the upper-arm her head laid against.

"It's okay! It's alright!" Connor tried assuring her. "I'm going to get you help! You'll be okay!" Connor said, through stone tears he hadn't shed in years. "Ellie, please-!" He cried out in desperation, looping her upper-body into the bend of his arm, cradling her close to his chest, as he could still hear her whimpering and making shallow gasps of desperation to try breathing in oxygen. Connor looked down at her, seeing her eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes watery with agony. Her teeth were clutched together tight, trying to withstand the shooting pain in the back of her cranium and her spine.

"Connor-!" Ellie suddenly found the strength to speak, squeaking out his name. She looked straight up at him, with her glowing jaded eyes, to his dark clouded eyes. "Y-You... better keep going with... your life...!" She warned him, with a crooked smirk on her, trying to breath out a broken chuckle. "Or, I'm... going to haunt your ass... all over this fucking town...!" She coughed out a laugh, seeing Connor making a smile and a shaky laugh to her final warning.

Until her voice faded, and her throat let out a final extinguish of oxygen, as Ellie's fidgety movements suddenly became still, and her body going slump in his embrace. The familiar glimmer of life in her eyes suddenly faded as well, with the last of her tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Ellie...?" Connor quietly called her name, seeing that she had become still. "Ellie-!" He shut his eyes tightly, and wrapped his large arms around her smaller frame, taking her into his arms, hugging her against his chest. He put the side of his face against the top of Ellie's head, crying aloud to himself, as on-lookers standing at the riverside had watched as Ellie's young life had vanished. "Please, wake in Heaven." Connor whispered in his cries, within his Mohawk tongue, still cradling her body in his arms.

* * *

**[The Final Dream]**

"Hey, kiddo." A familiar husky voice made Ellie's eyes snap open with a shocked gasp. "Whoa, there," says Joel, standing at her sleeping side. "It's just me."

"... Joel?" Ellie looked up at Joel, blinking in confusion.

"C'mon." Joel helped Ellie out of the Animus. "You were mumbling a lot in your sleep. Woke me up." He looked back to the long chair, seeing how odd it looked, with mechanical gears and cable wires running out of the bottom of the long chair. But, he didn't think too much on the chair. "Some sunlight is out. We can take an early walk out of this cave, and find another route to the Salt Lake Hospital." He said, as he turned around to start off, walking around the large boulder that blocked the Animus. "We should be there before it hits noon, so..." He didn't hear Ellie responding. "Ellie?"

Joel turned back around, and saw that Ellie was standing at the side of the Animus, staring down at it, with both her hands together, looking down at the long chair. Her back was turned to him, but, Joel could sense that she was deep in thought about something.

"Hey, Ellie." Joel called Ellie's name.

"Huh?" Ellie blinked, turning around to Joel.

"You hear me?" He asked.

"... I was just wondering..." Ellie scratched the back of her neck. "How long was I asleep?"

Joel made a bewildered look on his face, with his eyebrows furrowed. "You only slept the whole night, kiddo." He answered.

"Really...?!" Ellie was almost taken back by the answer. "... It feels like... years." She quieted down, shifting her eyes to the giant boulder in front of her. "Feels like I've been sleeping for a really long time..."

Joel shrugged to that. "Well... dreams are real weird. Let's get on with it." He reminded her, as he started off around the boulder, while Ellie followed behind closely.

While following behind out of the cave, Ellie parted her bangs, and went to adjust her ponytail, when she noticed...

Her ponytail was still held up by the ribbon Achilles had given to her. She stopped dead at her tracks, as she felt her palm over the perfectly tied ribbon around her ponytail, that held up her hair. Her eyes widened, and her heart was ready to flutter, or drop.

Her dreaming wasn't fake at all. It was _real_.

"Fuck..." Ellie swore to herself, gripping the tied ribbon in her balled fist hard. She was ready to start crying out in joy, now knowing that everything she knew wasn't a lie. Everyone she knew weren't fake images of friends. Connor was everything as real as it came to be. "Oh, shit..." She kept back her tears, inhaling heavily through her nostrils and wiping at her watery eyes with her long sleeve.

"Ellie." Joel called her name again, as he stood at the exit of the cave, waiting for Ellie. "You coming?"

"Yeah...!" Ellie nodded her head, jogging towards Joel. "Let's get on with it."

_After the death of Ellie, in the Revolutionary War, Connor Kenway took her words to heart, and decided to keep fighting for justice to prevail onto the new world of America. He had changed as a person since her death, having to bury her body in a secret location elsewhere, so that other surviving Templar would not come to find her corpse. He wanted her death to remain silent, and unknown._

_Connor moved on from his fight in liberating slaves still held accountable by slavers, and had met the female Assassin, Aveline de Grandpre, and had fallen in love. Together, the two fought through liberation, and had sought to join in the new dawn of the French Revolution as one._

_Returning back to her own realm, Ellie had unfortunately missed her chances at meeting the FireFlies that she knew could extract the cure out of her body, and save humanity. As much as she tried hard to believe in Joel's story of the FireFlies giving up on a cure and letting her be, Ellie knew that a new storm would be brewing close-by, as she could remember the woman's voice from the Animus telling her that if she failed to find the FireFlies, then she would have to find the Assassins._

_To Ellie's own fear, the Assassins could already be looking for her, instead..._

**With the knowledge of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad; the skills of Ezio Auditore de Firenze; the strength of Connor Kenway; the attitude of Edward, Ellie was created.**

**[THE END.]**


	17. EXTRA: Differences Alight

_What if Ellie finally met Haytham, but not in the most friendliest terms? What if things were more of a complicated relationship with Connor and Haytham?_

* * *

**[Not Friends At First]**

Ellie marched upon the snowy road with Connor at her side, as the two travelled together towards the Southern Road of Boston, within the woods. As the two tailed through the black charcoaled road to the said path of Benjamin Church's hidden location, Connor decided to take the lead and step forward for Ellie to follow suit, in case of Church's own goons were around guarding the area off from any potential Assassins or enemies.

But, surprisingly, arriving to the location on Southern Road, finding an abandoned church amongst the trees, there was no soul in sight. The building itself looked thrashed and abandoned by recent activities indoors, but, the two did not take their chances. Church could still be planning to appear, so, they wanted to surprise him.

Connor stepped inside the church first, finding that there was absolutely nothing indoors. Emptied, like a hollowed cave. No furniture or other belongings anywhere in sight. Just four walls and a large floor made of grayish Winter wood. Connor swore to himself silently, wondering if he were already too late to capture Church.

Just when he was about to turn and leave, he was suddenly pounced by a heavier bodied man from a beam above his head. Connor plummeted down hard on his back, being held down with a hand flat on his chest, and a body hovering above his.

"Father," Connor could only recognize Haytham's face.

"Connor," Haytham also greeted back quietly, with a hidden blade unsheathed. "Any last words?" He asked callously.

"Wait-!" Connor tried.

"A poor choice." Haytham smirked.

Connor's eyes then fell to something behind Haytham. "Wait!" He shouted.

"Get the fuck away from him!" A little voice screeched at Haytham.

Before Haytham could look over his shoulder and see who Connor was ordering at, he was jumped at his back by Ellie's petite weight, feeling her slim arms wrap over his shoulders as she had her switchblade in her right-hand, ready to start stabbing at him.

"Let go!" Haytham hollered at the girl, getting off Connor's body and started stumbling through the emptied large room, trying to throw her off his back. As much as he Ellie's lower body would frail around to Haytham's resistance to throw her off, Ellie still clung tight on him, awaiting a right opportunity to stab him in the neck. "Goddammit, woman, get the fuck off me!"

Ellie lifted her arm and plummeted the knife down, only to feel her wrist being grabbed by Haytham's strong hand, only able to dig in the tip of the sharpened blade into the collar of his coat and cloak. With that, Haytham used the advantage and swung her forward, throwing her over his head and slamming her down onto her back, prying the switchblade out of her hand in the process.

"What the fuck?!" Haytham realized that she was a tiny girl, and not a woman.

Connor reacted, darting straight at Haytham and tackled him to the floor, retrieving the switchblade from his hand to toss it aside, in case Haytham tried using it on him. But, he didn't want to attack Haytham any further, wanting nothing more than to speak to him.

"Everyone hold their fucking horses!" Connor shouted after he stood up from Haytham, standing between him and Ellie, as she also stood up. "Just stop for a moment!" He glanced at Ellie, with his arm in front of her to stop her from pursuing Haytham again. "Are you fucking done?" Connor then directed his sneer towards Haytham.

"Am _I _done?" Haytham snarled at Connor, once he was up on his feet again. "Why don't you ask that insane girl if she's done?! She nearly stabbed me to death!" Haytham threw a glare at Ellie. "Who the fuck is this brat, boy? What does she want?!"

"_I _am none of you _goddamn _business!" Ellie snapped at Haytham, also glaring. "We're here because your fucking buddy-boy, Church, stole things from the Patriots! You and those other fucking red-coat shitheads trying to kill George, too!"

"My _buddy_..." Haytham scoffed hard to that. "Benjamin Church is no 'buddy' of mine! No more than those red-coats, or their Idiot King!" Haytham felt his hand over where Ellie had stabbed the blade through his collar, finding nothing bleeding or no skin broken. He exhaled heavily in irritation. "I expected naiveté, but, _this_?!" Haytham looked at Connor now, with his eyes narrowed. "The Templars _do not _fight for the crown." He narrowed down. "We seek the same as you, boy! Freedom, justice, independence-!"

"I call bullshit on that." Connor retorted with a hiss, making Haytham more fumed. "Johnson sought to steal land! Pitcairn wanted to sack towns! Hickey tried to kill George Washington!" He raised his voice more at Haytham, as Ellie paced in frustration of dealing with him as well.

"You fucking moronic brat." Haytham stated his curt retort. "What makes you so sure we'd want to do those things? We wanted to own land, to keep it safe. Pitcairn aimed to encouraged diplomacy, which _you _cocked up _thoroughly _enough to start a_ goddamn_ war!" Haytham was raising his voice this time, enough to make Ellie more angered.

"No, fuck you, man!" Ellie snapped at Haytham. "You're the one that tried killing Connor-!"

Ellie was ready to argue on, but, was immediately stopped by Connor, with a hand on her shoulder and taking her a few steps backwards from Haytham. "I need you to _shut up_." Connor quietly ordered at a frustrated Ellie, who just shrugged off his hand from her shoulder with a scoff following along with it. She kept quiet.

After an argument that turned down to a truce between the distant father and son, and a uncertain Ellie, the three decided to join together in a team to find Church together. Haytham spoke that he, too, wanted to find Church, for personal reasons. Wanting him punished for a crime that wronged the Templar Order. As much as Ellie just didn't trust Haytham to the slightest, Connor assured her that he wouldn't do anything behind their backs.

"I may be able to track him." Connor answered, as the three looked to track down Benjamin's whereabouts, and question him for the stolen goods.

While following obscure tracks likely covered by one of Church's men on the road, Haytham retorted something to Connor.

"You're a terrible father. What did you and your people teach her, when you were raising her in the wild? She's unmannered and curt to the highest degree!"

Connor stopped where he was and made a wholly bewildered look on his face. He stared at Haytham with narrowed eyes, unsure of what he was getting at. Just from the way he pressed his lips together and his eyes full of confusion, he was truly lost with Haytham's retort.

"What are you jawing about?" Connor asked Haytham. "I, a father?" He pointed at himself. Until he dramatically gasped in shock. "Did I bear children without knowing?!"

"No, you lout!" Haytham wanted to cane Connor, but just tried holding back most of his irritation. "I meant the brat."

"_Haha_. Fuck you, too," scoffed Ellie towards Haytham. She then glanced up at Connor. "Are you kidding me with this guy?" She pointed at Haytham.

"Peace, Ellie. I do not want to find you two ripping each other apart later on in the future." Connor warned the two. Then, he decided to yank Haytham's chain. "Oh, yes. Ellie is my daughter. I met someone in town and took Ellie for myself when she was born. It was a pirate woman named Henna."

"... Uh..." Haytham shifted his eyes away, unsure of what to say.

"Granddad! We finally meet!" Ellie tagged along in the joke, swinging her arms up into the air, in front of herself, to attempt on hugging Haytham.

Haytham made a petrified look on his face.

Connor heard his uncertainty and chuckled, along with Ellie. "I am _just_ fucking with you." He assured him. "Ellie was lost on land, and I took her in to watch out for her, until her real father would reappear." He explained truthfully. "I am not fooling around this time, just so we are clear."

"Oh, good," Haytham rolled his eyes. "You're _pretending_ to be a father, then."

"Psh." Connor wanted to sock his father in the throat. But, held back from that. "We're getting close."

* * *

**[The Trivia]**

"What's this?" Ellie asked, as the three were in a dark alley, stopping at a small table that had a board game of Fanorona.

"Oh," Haytham stopped to look down at the board game as well, seeing that the playable pieces were scattered about, as if someone had already played. "This is Fanorona. Complicated game, if you don't know the concept." Haytham explained.

"Like chess?" Ellie looked up at Haytham, with her eyebrows furrowed with a thoughtful look.

"You could almost say." Haytham shrugged. "Jury's still out."

"I've always wanted to learn chess..." Ellie sighed, thinking back to an image of a regular chess board game, with all the pieces. "Playing chess, professionally, means you're a total genius, right? Or, is that a lie?"

"I play chess." Haytham answered. "I'm one-hundred precent genius."

"Oh, my God. A genius in the house, Connor. We better get the fuck back." Ellie sarcastically joked, earning a chuckle from Haytham.

During their travel together to New York, after infiltrating Church's camp to pry out his location from his goons, Ellie and Haytham had begun to slowly see eye-to-eye, whenever they would make the same retort or witty remark at the same, exact time, whenever they would talk about someone, like Church or other icons Ellie had met. Ellie certainly had the exact mind as Haytham's, but she was still innocent enough to be Connor's demeanor.

Haytham still didn't cool down from retorting at Ellie sometimes. But, they were mostly small comments, instead of obscene rants that he and she would have made, had they not gotten along better at the moment.

And, yet, Connor was beginning to get envious. Both of Ellie and Haytham.

Jealous of Ellie, because she was easily getting along better with Haytham, as he had wanted to the whole time. Connor couldn't approach people well enough without running them off, as Ellie could. Haytham was still his father, even though he wanted to rip out his throat. It almost made Connor boil that Haytham was being so casual around her, even though she nearly stabbed him to death.

And, jealous of Haytham, because he was acting more fatherly towards Ellie, than Connor could never usually manage. Ellie was still his best friend, and closest ally that hasn't die in his care yet, and all her attention was being turned around to Haytham because of his charismatic, stoic demeanor.

But, God, Connor was _absolutely sure _that he wasn't jealous of anyone.

"I am most certainly not!" Connor suddenly outburst at himself, with his loud voice echoing through the dark alley walls.

Both Haytham and Ellie stared at Connor with confusion.

"Uh, I'll just lead," Haytham decided to march forward instead.

"Pft." Ellie scoffed at him, before pushing Connor at his back with both her tiny hands. "Come on. We're getting that guy before dawn, remember?" She reminded Connor, moving over to his side as he began to move on his own.

The trip through the darkness of the city was something new and different for Ellie. She had never once set foot into the city, when it was nightfall. She has ventured out into the woods at nighttime, with just one lantern in hand. Never had she been surrounded by so many candle lit street lanterns before in her life.

Rooftop climbing was easy. It was just the two competing men that tried to outdo each other into jumping farthest or scaling fastest.

It only happened when Haytham was climbing ahead normally, and Connor suddenly appeared at the corner of his eye. It instantly ignited some mental race against each other now, due to the fact that Haytham _hated _losing. Connor just loved being a total prick sometimes, and drew his competitors backwards in their trails.

"Get ready to haul ass." Connor said to Haytham.

"Like you could ever," retorted Haytham, before the two suddenly started to sped off over rooftops and walls like two rabid raccoons.

Ellie was left in the dust, literally feeling like the referee when she shouted 'go' and they went hauling ass, burning rubber like friction, through the city rooftops. If there was a car in that era, their feet would have made the same screeching sounds of the tires blasting through the streets. While from a distance she could hear Haytham and Connor spewing retorts at one another, Ellie was left to think that she didn't think their rivalry could be this childish as well, if not over-the-top cantankerous to the next level.

It wasn't long after the two men arrived to the roof of a church a few minutes later, panting hard and trying to catch their breath as they were ready to collapse on the tiles. They didn't know who won the mental race towards their destination, until they heard the familiar voice of their little girl at the rooftop.

"Oh, my gosh, you guys are _slooooow_." Ellie couldn't help but coddle herself, as she sat victorious on the rooftop, not out of breath or breaking a sweat. "I just went the opposite way, and found a short cut to this place!"

Connor exhaled heavily, "Oops, right?!"

Just from the sight of the pride-downing little girl beating them at their own game, the two men collapsed on the tiles, with heavy tuckered-out huffs.

* * *

**[What's Your Name?]**

"Bullshit!" Ellie shouted at Connor.

"Do not raise your voice at me." Connor pointed sternly at Ellie, like a disciplining father. "I cannot let these stolen goods go by themselves, can I?"

After the trivial task of venture out onto the seven seas to hunt down Benjamin Church and his runaway ship for the Patriots' stolen goods, they retrieved all of it, and were now going to be transported to Valley Forge, back to Washington. But, since Connor was asked to be there with the stolen goods, there would be no room for Ellie to follow him back to Valley Forge. So, he wanted to trust in Haytham to watch out for her.

"Connor...!" Ellie rashly said Connor's name in an unsure manner. "I can't trust him." She admitted quietly.

Connor saw the uncertainty in her eyes, but, he couldn't do anything about it. "I apologize, Ellie. It will only be for the while, though." He promised her.

Ellie became flustered still. "But-"

"Elizabeth!" Haytham shouted towards Ellie, while he was at a waiting carriage for her. He was heading back to his own location for a short time, to tell news about Church's demise.

Ellie gazed back up to Connor with her big eyes, knowing he wouldn't change his mind. "_Fine_." She shrugged her arms with a huff. "But, you better make it quick."

"I will be back at nightfall. Do not worry." He petted the top of her head as assurance, smiling down at her as well.

Ellie and Connor parted, going their separate ways as Connor went back onto his ship of Aquila, while Ellie walked towards the waiting carriage with Haytham.

The travel out of New York was short, but enough to still be boring throughout. Ellie was mostly silent through the ride, mostly because of the fact that she didn't know what to seriously talk about with Haytham. She mostly thought to herself about Haytham's personality, mentally analyzing him in her brain. Her eyes were kept on the window of the carriage, watching the countryside passing her by from foreign land to familiar territory.

Before she could think of something else, Ellie then heard something in the carriage. Ellie glanced over to Haytham, and saw that he had quickly nodded off into a nap. He was snoring softly, enough to hear, but not obnoxious to the ears. His body was still sitting up, arms crossed over his chest, and his head leaned against the wall of the carriage where the side of his tricorn-hat mushed against.

Ellie was somewhat shocked, getting the best of her childish thoughts of thinking Haytham _never _slept. She thought he was a paranoid man, but, she supposed not. Ellie couldn't help but study his face with her eyes. He looked more calm in the features, with his eyebrows relaxed from a furrow. She was actually fascinated by the fact that Haytham could sleep. Let alone, actually relax.

A rest sounded about right at the moment as well. Ellie decided to follow suit and just sleep.

When it came down to the arrival to Boston, Ellie was still asleep in the carriage, right up until her body felt the entire carriage come to a halt. Her eyes opened with a grimace of being attacked by sunlight. When her eyes opened, she lifted her head up from the wall, and saw her side of the carriage door opened. In seconds, Haytham appeared, reaching into the carriage to shake Ellie's leg.

"Elizabeth, time to wake." He answered, waking her up a little more to her senses.

Ellie nodded with a heavy inhalation through her nostrils as she began to pull herself out of the carriage. When she was out on ground, she looked up at a building that they stopped in front of. To what she could tell, it was a tavern, which made Ellie a little wondering. Seeing a sign above the tavern, she read it aloud to herself.

"Green... Dragon... Tavern." She tiredly read. "What is this place, like an inn?" She asked Haytham once he finished grabbing his satchel out of the carriage.

"You could say that." Haytham answered, while the carriage began riding off.

"Do they have food in there?" Ellie asked, as the two began towards the tavern doors. "Augh! I'm so hungry!"

"I know. Me, too." Haytham pat her back as comfort. "You'll have to wait until I'm finished talking to the others, though."

"Well, if I starve, you're responsible." Ellie couldn't help but make a retort, as a mental reminder to Haytham that Connor would be most upset if she wasn't taken well care of.

Inside the tavern, where there was a bustle of men drinking and chatting loudly and chipper. Ellie looked around the tavern, while following Haytham from behind his back, as he made his way towards the single staircase that led up to a second floor. The wooden stairs were aged, but sturdy. They creaked with familiarity, as Ellie could remember herself running up-and-down the staircase of the homestead back in Davenport.

"Master Kenway!" A voice from above the staircase greeted Haytham whole-heartedly. "I received your letter yesterday. What goes on-"

The man upon the stairs stopped when he saw little Ellie following Haytham, making it to the top of the stairs after Haytham did. He gave her a narrowed stare, quieting down as he studied her for a moment. Ellie, on the other hand, knew exactly who this man was, and didn't like him instantly. She kept her distance from him as she followed Haytham to the long table of emptied chairs.

"What the fuck are you staring at?" Ellie couldn't hold in the obvious as she snapped at the suspicious man. She shot glares straight at the man.

This man was Charles Lee. She could remember the portrait of Charles Lee on the wall of the homestead's basement level. Connor told Ellie everything Charles did in his past, and immediately didn't like the guy, when she first heard Connor say that Charles was responsible for his Mother's death, and burning down half his village in the valley. Ellie didn't like how people worked that way, and she didn't want to associate herself with Charles in anyway friendly.

"Just stay the fuck back." Ellie growled at Charles.

Of course, Charles was most offended by this act of threat from the little girl. "Who do you think you are, to call me out like some savage! You step into this tavern for one minute, and the next, you suddenly start to rabid like a wild dog!" Charles then looked at Haytham for an answer. "Who is this girl, and what is she doing here, Master Kenway?!"

"It's none of you goddamn business, man!" Ellie pointed and shouted at Charles.

"HELLO." Haytham chimed in, grabbing their attention. "If you ladies are done fighting over me, we've got bigger things to discuss." He then glanced at Ellie with a stern look. "You may go down and find something to eat. I'm going to talk to Charles for a moment. Go on." He lightly shoved Ellie at her back to let her go back down the stairs, showing notion for her to leave them be.

Ellie just scoffed quietly to herself as she stepped back down the stairs, back onto the first floor, while she could hear Haytham beginning to speak to Charles.

Downstairs, accompanied by the sounds of men chattering and laughing together, Ellie was sitting alone at the counter, where she was eating a plate of fresh sweet rolls. She was more than pissed off to think that she was under the same roof, with the man that Connor hated. She was being loyal to Connor, and wanted nothing to do with Charles. She understood Connor's feelings, and didn't want to betray those emotions by being anywhere friendly towards Charles.

She began to think of what Connor was doing, other than returning the stolen goods. She was wondering if he was doing anything on his side that was not as stressful as being around an idiot. Oh, wait, he was with a bunch of pirates. Ellie snorted with a smile, while still eating the last sweet roll on her plate.

Then, the sound of a dog's bark woke her up from her thoughts. Ellie blinked, looking over her shoulder, and saw that it was a medium-sized dog, that looked like a husky. It's fur was amazingly bright and shiny with health, and amply fluffy to the eye. It was immediately attracted to Ellie, because of her smell of the outdoors on her clothes.

"Aw! A dog." Ellie jumped out of her stool to kneel down to the husky's height and pet it. "Where are you from?" Ellie didn't see this dog indoors earlier, so, she figured that it was a loose dog from the streets. Ellie decided to let the dog follow her out the tavern, to see if the owner was outside and looking for the husky.

Outside, Ellie was immediately met by a man that hastily approached her, when he saw the husky by her side.

"Luna! I was wondering where she'd gone!" When he spoke, Ellie noticed something in his voice immediately. She could hear a heavy and a cheery attitude. This man looked very sharp and clean, which was something Ellie never saw before.

Ellie smiled at him, with her eyes lighting up when he gave her a wide smile.

"Thanks. I thought she had got lost in the streets. She keeps running off like a maniac all the time!"

"No prob'." Ellie shrugged, still smiling. "She's a really beautiful dog."

"Well, what do you expect? Huskies are beautiful creatures." He shrugged his arms as Luna, the husky, went to his side, tail wagging. "Uh, my name's Robyn, by the way." He extended his hand out to Ellie.

"Ellie." She greeted back, taking his hand, and both shook. "Where do you go, anyways? If she runs off so much."

"Oh," Robyn pointed at a building not very far from where the tavern was. It was six buildings away. He directed it towards the building that was slightly taller than the rest. "It's a bath house I own. Luna hates it indoors, I know, which is why she runs off constantly." He shrugs, making a snort.

Then, Ellie remembered that she needed to take a bath. After the adventures she had out in New York and out at sea for a few days, she didn't feel so clean.

So, she went to the bath house instead, forgetting to tell Haytham.

_**An hour later.**_

Ellie stepped back into the tavern, not being met by any figurative man she was sure she would run into.

She was in a batch of new clothes, that were all boys', but fitted perfectly to her slim figure: black waist coat; fitted white dress shirt with long sleeves; long fitted black pants; and wore a blue scarf around her neck, over her puffed fitted neck collar that embraced her small neck warmly. What mostly stood out was her hair: it was especially cleaned, enough to show wavy ends in her loose bangs and ponytail. It was brighter with color, out of the grime she mushed herself into constantly. Her skin was brighter from a thorough scrub at her splotched skin of ash and dirt, exposing her brighter side.

While Ellie hurried to the staircase, away from the staring men that eyed her heavily, she went to go find Haytham. She saw other Templar men in the den, that looked over at her with darkened expressions. Ellie saw how their eyes shifted darkly towards her, and she just gave a petulant sigh at them, rolling her eyes, just to get on their nerves.

"Who're you-" Charles was about to ask Ellie, unable to recognize her new look for a moment, until her vibrant green eyes met his icy blue ones. "Oh. It's _you_."

"Pssh." Ellie scoffed at his direction. "Where's Haytham?" She asked.

"He's killing time, with resting. I suggest strongly that you shouldn't disturb him." Charles said - or, rather, ordered - in the most rash voice.

"Pft." Ellie scoffed once more at him. "Oh, please." She then turned around and found a door behind her, opening it up quickly and jumped inside, before Charles could stop her, as she slammed the door shut with an evil cackle following suit.

She saw Haytham at his desk, writing something in his opened journal. She stepped into the room and approached Haytham at his back, extending her hand out to tap her index finger on his right shoulder. Haytham jolted to the feeling. "Hey! You doing good?" Ellie asked, ignoring his reaction.

Haytham closed his journal shut, sighing. He turned around in his chair to look at Ellie, and made an astonished look on his face. "What in the _world_ happened to _you_?"

"What?!" Ellie felt offended by his reaction. "I got cleaned up! So what?" She shrugged her arms.

Haytham stared at Ellie for a long while, examining her face and hair with his eyes. "My God..." He sounded astonished still. "You actually know the concept of _soap_." He stood up from his desk chair and went to Ellie with his hands on her shoulders. "And you don't smell like the fucking wilderness!" He moved his hands up to the top of Ellie's head, and petted her cleaned hair. "Holy Mother of God."

After being flabbergasted by her new change of cleanliness, Ellie explained that she visited the bath house down the street. She expected to be scolded by Haytham, told not to run off without his permission, but, Haytham knew Robyn from the bath house as well. Haytham said he saved the man's life before, when a group of muggers tried harming him. But, still Haytham did scold Ellie lightly on running off, which just felt like a couple of slaps to the wrist, but nothing more.

"Whoa! You're not mad?!" Ellie was astonished now.

Haytham made a bewildered look on his face. "Do you want me to be?"

Ellie shook her head. "It's just that - where I'm from, when kids did something wrong, we'd get punched for it."

Haytham's eyes widened when he heard the first origin of Ellie's own kind of family. "... Where the fuck are you from?"

She shrugged. "Well, here and there. All over, really. I'm a born nomad."

* * *

**[The Death Of A Dream]**

After what happened in Fort George with the obliteration of the hideout and the death of Haytham's, Ellie began to think twice on questioning Haytham.

"Aw man." Ellie said as she walked with Connor, while he was still trying to walk straight, with his new wounded leg that was permanently damaged, due to being impaled by a stick of wood to his hip during their chase for Charles. "I forgot to put something on Haytham's grave." Ellie remembered that she still had something she stole from a jewelry store down the street in Boston.

"Ellie..." Connor quietly said her name, as the two stopped at a cliff to view the sunset over the horizon of tall trees and greenery. "We do not need to discuss this."

Ellie's eyebrows furrowed. "Why not?" She sounded slightly annoyed, to the fact that she could never bring up Haytham. "I want to talk about him!"

"We do not need to any longer, Ellie." Connor's voice raised to a firm tone. "Have I not told you enough of his death?"

To her little ears, Ellie could hear the smallest heartbreak in Connor's tone when he spoke about Haytham. She knew that Connor didn't mean to kill Haytham before, when the two dueled on the grounds of Fort George. Connor was left with no other choices to choose, whether to kill, or be killed. So, he chose the first option, that he would constantly regret on doing for ions to come.

Sometimes, Ellie would wonder why she would keep bringing up Haytham herself.

"You're right," Ellie shifted her eyes down to the view, twisting her hands together in front of her stomach. "I'm sorry..."

For the past few days of finding more missions to do, into rebuilding America and finding the growth of the Creed escalating highly, Ellie almost found it to be none of her business any longer. Sure, she had always stayed close to Connor's side, thinking they were the last of themselves, but, the increase of Assassins joining the Brotherhood all over different parts of the country made Ellie come to think that they were not alone. And, they did not have to stick together very long.

Even though she thought this to herself, Ellie knew that Connor was every as a reflection to herself. He was strong, and mighty, but he also wanted someone by his side, to not bear loneliness he feared most. To Ellie, she knew that having a hoard of Assassins couldn't possibly fill up the emptied heart. Ellie knew how he felt. She didn't want to turn her back on Connor, but, a part of her was also saying that she was ready to move on soon.

She wondered what Connor though about the growth of the Brotherhood sometimes. He was happy, but, what did he truly feel?

"It's elk season!" Ellie ran to the front door of the homestead, dressed and in her large black coat for the Winter flight. "I'm going to go hunting." She lastly reminded Connor, as he sat in a different room with the other Assassins, before she jumped out the front door and slammed it shut behind her. _No, I should just leave_. Ellie suggested to herself, as she carried her satchel, loaded quiver of arrows, and a large, carved bow around her tiny torso. _No, wait_!_ I should go see Haytham's fucking grave_! Ellie then remembered the memento she forgot to put at Haytham's grave.

She wanted to leave something behind at Haytham's grave, that she had _sort of _stole from a jewelry shop in New York. It was a silver necklace, she had a carved 'H' on the small round pendant. The 'H' could have met a million different ideals, but, Ellie saw it as something that reminded her of Haytham. She stole it during her time she had travelled backwards to New York with Haytham, going to meet Connor at nightfall. She wanted to give it to him, but, the conflict between father and son kept her back. So, she just held onto it for the right time.

And, going to meet Haytham's grave alone, felt like the best time.

Strolling through the woods alone, on a thin path of snow-covered dirt that led through a narrow, winding path through the tall trees to obscure herself from any human or animal predator lurking about, Ellie was going to make her way down into New York by herself, thinking about the cemetery she last visited when she was still over yonder. It wasn't a large cemetery, which surprised Ellie, knowing how many soldiers in war had died.

While wandering through, Ellie began whistling to herself, learning the new musical technique, all thanks to her persistence and constant failures. But, she didn't whistle for very long, when she heard the sounds of paws lurking through the brush, just beyond the trees. Ellie heard them as something that was awfully similar to a bobcat's tracks, and she immediately crouched down into silence to listen for more paws approaching.

The bobcat was a large creature, but not so much trouble for Ellie to take down. She easily took down the large cat with her switchblade, not wanting to waste her arrows on it. A couple of stabs into the side of its neck, and the cat went down without a fight. Once it was down, Ellie examined its fur, seeing that it was in good enough condition to skin and take its pelt, to make something out of it.

While she was skinning it, Ellie had no idea that she was approached from behind, by a large grizzly bear in its adult age. With a powerful snort and snarl, warning Ellie of its hereabouts, Ellie pounced back up to her feet, running for her life as the bear chased straight after her. Ellie was fast, but not nearly ready to take on an adult grizzly bear alone. The last time she tried to be a hero, she was almost mauled to death, hadn't Connor been there to save her.

If anything that could save her, Ellie's only salvation was to climb up a tree, like a petrified cat running from a wild dog. She managed up an oak tree, sturdy enough to withstand the bear's persistence charging against the tree, and tall and high enough to cradle Ellie away from the bear's jaws of death.

"Bullshit bear!" Ellie screamed at the bear as it continued to try grappling at Ellie with its massive teeth. "Oh, my gun!" Ellie remembered her pistol in her satchel.

But, before she could pull out the loaded gun from her satchel, something miraculous occurred.

Down below where the bear was, it was suddenly tackled by a man, from its side. Landing down at the mighty bears weight, the man that tackled it unsheathed two hidden blades from his greaves and started stabbing into the bear's neck, one at a time, getting up to launch his next attack when the bear also flew up to try attacking. This man was quick, if not fluent, with striking at a grizzly's weak points in the neck. And, they were the same combat skills Ellie knew that only two people in the world could possibly master in just days.

When the bear went down to its last stand, the man was about to strike it down in the skull with another stab with his hidden blades, when he was suddenly pounced at the bears paws, throwing him down to his back, and the bear's weight over his, just inches closer to crushing the man's chest in with its weight, when-

_Blam!_

Ellie finally shot the one-shot pistol at the side of the bears large cranium, blowing its brain matters and blood out of its head. The bear flew over to its side, slumped into the snow as it died instantly to the impact.

"Aw, shit!" Ellie dropped the pistol and ran to the man's side. "Fucking Haytham!" She shouted, dropping down to Haytham's side.

"Yeah, yeah." Haytham sighed, remaining to lay on the snow, rubbing his forehead with his heavy hand in relief to still be alive.

"Holy shit!" Ellie couldn't help but continue ranting. "Oh, my God! Haytham! You're alive!" She grabbed both Haytham's shoulders and shook him. "Connor said you were dead back at that Fort, and you were buried, and Charles was at the funeral and everything, and-!"

"Calm down, my girl!" Haytham quickly slapped his hand over Ellie's running mouth, shutting it.

And then, Ellie remembered something. "Let me see!" She got closer to Haytham, reaching her hands out to his neck collar.

"Girl, there is nothing to see-"

"Let me _see_!" Ellie pressed, grabbing at Haytham's neck collar to look at the side of Haytham's neck, in search of any marks on him, that indicating Connor's story to be the truth about Haytham's demise. When Ellie pulled down Haytham's collar, she saw a sight of a large scar over his neck, that was darkened from his normal skin color. It looked as if it stretched along from the back of his neck, over to the front of his throat. It looked as if it were meant to decapitate Haytham. Not just stab. "Oh." Ellie backed up from Haytham's space, a little startled by the sight of his new scar.

"Connor said he killed you months ago."

"Not nearly."

"Fort George was wrecked and fucked in the ass!"

"Well, not me."

"You were buried and had a funeral!"

"I woke up in the coffin, and snuck out before the people could bury me."

"Whoa..." Ellie was astonished still. "You're a ghost."

As the two began their long discussion of knowing each others' footsteps, Haytham didn't want to go any further on how he survived Connor's delivering death. He wanted that to be kept aside and not spoken of. Ellie didn't understand why he wanted to keep it a secret, but, it almost didn't matter. She actually wanted to know what Haytham was doing out there, in the woods where Ellie happened by.

"I thought of killing Connor." Haytham decided to only admit that.

"No!" Ellie yelled. "Connor doesn't deserve it!"

"Doesn't deserve it?" Haytham scoffed at the girl. "If you didn't look closely at this scar, I was ready to have my head sliced off of my shoulders."

"N-No... What I meant is..." Ellie scratched the back of her head, feeling unsure and flustered. "Connor didn't think you would go fucking awal on him when you were at the Fort. He thought he could," she shrugged, "change your mind about the Templar Order, and just be on our side."

"That's moronic." Haytham just shook his head.

"Well, he wanted to be buddies! I don't know!" Ellie shrugged again. "Maybe you could think of joining the Creed?"

"Pssh." Haytham scoffed once more. "You know what? _No_. After what he had tried to do to me, I don't feel the need to just barge into that manor, and say, hey! Son, I know you tried killing me before, but let's put that behind us, and work together in destroying the rest of the Templar men scourging for America!" He sarcastically exclaimed, making Ellie more fumed with confusion and a hint of anger. "Do you think it'd work that way?"

"... Yes...?" Ellie squeaked, looking up at Haytham with hopeful eyes.

Haytham rolled his eyes, exhaling heavily through his nostrils. "You're just as naïve." He only said to Ellie quietly.

"Come on, man." Ellie followed Haytham through the woodsy path of winding directions through the bodies of trees. "I just thought Connor would be - I dunno - happy to see you alive, is all. I thought it could work that way, or something..." She shrugged her arms.

"Well," Haytham stopped at his tracks, almost making Ellie run into his back. "Then, I mistook what I said before. You just as petulant and thoughtless as Connor."

"Okay, you know what? No!" Ellie defended her mentor. "Call me what you want, but Connor is only the way he is, is because he's got nothing much to live for. I mean, he's suppose to be dead. _You're_ suppose to be dead. And, fuck it, _I'm_ suppose to be dead, too! But - I dunno - we're all alive for a fucking reason. You don't have much to live for, either, Haytham."

But, all she heard was an annoyed sigh from Haytham. "I won't kill Connor if it's enough to make you stop running your mouth." Haytham callously remarked.

"You don't get it." Ellie shifted her eyes away from Haytham's, shaking her head lightly. "Why can't you just actually see Connor eye-to-eye? ... I mean, I know you mean well, but Connor's still your bloodline, isn't he?" Ellie looked down at her hands she twisted together thoughtfully. "I just thought that-"

"Well, you thought wrong." Haytham stopped Ellie in her sentence. "What's done is done. You're not part of it, anyhow, so just mind your own business, girl."

Ellie was not surprised by Haytham's reaction, yet it still cut deep in her heart to know that Haytham didn't want to reunite with Connor. Ellie knew how important family was, but, from how the two men had not seen or met each other in years, she could almost mistake them both for strangers. Is that was Haytham sees Connor now? As a stranger? Connor would have been running up walls if he knew his father was alive, in the most happiest of ways. She knew Connor still regretted that day of 'killing' his father, given no choice.

But, at the same time, this was none of her business, even though Connor was everything of her business. This particular subject was not anything of her own, though.

"... Okay." Ellie stopped jawing any further, only giving Haytham a little nod of her head, shifting her eyes up to his. "I'll stop."

Haytham didn't say anything further when Ellie agreed to stop talking. He just gave her one nod, with what seemed like a somber expression on his face, before he started through the woods again.

Trending through the woods was tedious, but Ellie knew the place like the back of her hand. She had to take lead sometimes, to help Haytham through the place and find the opened road outside of the wooden territory. With all the thoughts running through her head, she began to usually wonder why she was out there in the first place. All the serious talk, and she had wholly forgotten what she was suppose to be doing.

But, once the two reached an opened road, Ellie spotted a small grave at the opposite side of the charcoal road, and remembered instantly.

"Oh, uh..." Ellie stopped Haytham from walking further. "I was going to, um... visit your grave in Boston earlier. Put this on your tombstone." She dug into her pants pocket to pull out the silver necklace. She held the pendant in her hand, letting the silver lining drape over the side of her hand. "I saw it in the jewelry shop before, when you were still watching out for me, and I _sort of_ stole it... It had the letter 'H' on it, and I thought you'd like it." She looked up at Haytham, seeing that his eyes were on the necklace, but he wasn't making any notion to acquire it.

Ellie just thought he didn't want it, and became mentally heartbroken on the inside as she balled the necklace into her small hand.

"It's stupid." Ellie drew it back. "It's a pretty girly thing. I-I shouldn't have gotten this-"

"Give," Haytham extended an opened hand out to Ellie.

Ellie did so, handing over the pendant and dropping it into Haytham's hand. She saw him examine the necklace with his eyes, drawing the jewelry in closer to look better at it. Haytham hated wearing things around his neck, which was usually why pendants were either always carried in his hand or pocket. A small paranoia of things around his neck, since the beginning of time.

Instead of storing it in his pocket though, Haytham lifted up his sleeve and wrapped the necklace around his greave, where the hidden blade was attached. It fitted perfectly around his greave, even though Ellie wanted to bring up the obvious that necklaces weren't suppose to be worn like that. When it was wrapped around his wrist, he pulled down his sleeve over it, and gave Ellie a smile, with his eyes softening up from daggers.

After that, they had to go their separate ways. Ellie and Haytham gave each other a handshake, before they went their opposing ways.

Ellie decided to head back for the homestead, pondering on the thoughts of telling Connor her day out, or not at all.

**An extra that has some things tweaked in differently with my previous chapters. It's a pretty fucking long chapter, I'm sorry. I just couldn't help it. Inspirations from different directions came my way, and I wanted to do another extra, for the hell of it all.**

**I hope you enjoyed this! :)**


	18. EXTRA II: Safe and Sound

**[Safe and Sound]**

_- December 15th, 1782._

Just being back home from the traumatic events of slaughtering the Templars and riding Charles from the world, things began to start falling into different categories, that didn't feel labeled. It felt accomplishing to rid of Charles and the other Templars that crowded Boston and New York, yet the two friends knew better than to think that it was the end of the remainder of them, out in England, or hidden parts of the world, that were still unknown.

"Ow!" Connor hissed, as Ellie had to rub a cloth soaked in alcohol over his large gash, at the side of his abdomen.

"Sorry." Ellie quietly said, finishing on wiping off excess blood and clean out the bits of infection circling his gash. "Now for the hard part." Ellie tossed the cloth aside and grabbed a sewing needle, that was already threaded with thick, black strings, only meant on sewing shut large wounds. She positioned the sharp end of the needle down at the edge of Connor's wound. "Sorry-!" Ellie quickly squeaked out, before she stabbed the needle through his flesh.

"Shit...! Shit, shit!" Connor screeched, feeling the needle slip through his skin, and the rough sensation of the dry, thick thread rubbing through his skin as well.

Ellie wanted to mend to Connor's wound. It was from a thin wooden plank from the ship fire that impaled him through the side of his abdomen, enough to kill him instantly, as to where his major organs were at. But, he was somehow still alive, and still kicking. It made Ellie think of Joel, when he was also impaled, through the back with a hollowed pipe. He somehow managed, and was back up on his feet like nothing happened. Connor was just as tough, if not a bit more stubborn.

The tedious process of sewing Connor's large opened wound shut was something familiar to her, for she had done this before with Joel. She had to constantly mend to him everyday, cleaning his wound from infection, hunt outside for food to feed him, watch out for him with a loaded rifle at all times, and make sure he was still breathing. This almost felt the same, but, Connor was younger, and more energetic. There was a positive chance of him getting up and trying to do things himself, instead of relying on a little girl to help him.

"Okay, done." Ellie finally finished, cutting the last of the sewing string with a pair of scissors, and tied small knots to the ends to keep the thread on place with his skin. "That's all. No more." She assured him with comfort in her voice, putting everything away in a first aid kit, and pushed it aside to make room for Connor to start trying to get up and walk. "You've got to lay down." She told him, letting him lean on her, as she guided him to the bedroom, and helped lay him down in bed.

Once Connor was in bed and finally able to try relaxing his body, Ellie pulled off his boots, and took off his bladed greaves to put them aside. She then went to find heavy blankets, so that Connor could keep warm from the Winter still brewing outside. Storms have been nonstop since the arrival back to the manor. It was as if it were meant to keep the two indoors from scavenging for food.

Ellie came back into the room with two heavy blankets from another room she took them out of, and covered Connor up with both thick layers. Connor's face lifted from a pained, teeth-chattering expression to a almost calmer one at that, when he felt the warmth of the blankets engulf his wounded, freezing body. His breathing was slightly uneven still, but he wasn't freezing anymore, so Ellie felt better to know that he wasn't cold.

Once Connor was settled, eyes heavy from exhaustion, Ellie pulled up a chair next to the bedside and wrapped herself up in another blanket, and just sat in that chair the entire night. She slept sitting up in the chair, body hunched over and head hanging down. Listening to the fire in the fireplace cackle quietly, and hearing Connor's slow breathing beginning to move evenly, Ellie felt almost as safe and sound to be home again.

Home again.

For the next month of mending to Connor's and his daily routine of aiding him on whatever he did, Ellie was there. She hunted for food, usually bringing back home elk mutton and/or vegetables for Connor to eat. She also brought home pelts, to make something out of the fur to keep warm from the piling ice storm reaching closer to the homestead. She also helped Connor keep clean, always making a warm bath to have him sit in and get cleaned. He could clean himself, of course, but Ellie insisted sometimes on washing his back or shoulders, just because she was being a paranoid caretaker for him. As much as he didn't want her to, Connor would eventually give in. Ellie still mended to his wound, trying different remedies of medicine to try healing it better. Some worked. Others accidentally made it worse.

Just for a fourteen year old, Ellie managed well on her own to care for Connor. Experience from taking care of Joel the entire Winter, this was nothing new, and Ellie learned from every step on caring for a wounded friend. It wounded Connor's ego more, just from being nannied by a little girl, but, he had no one else to rely on for assistance, and he trusted Ellie more than anyone in the world.

No one else.

One night, after reading a true crime novel to Connor, Ellie had retired into her own room to sleep. It was suppose to be a quiet night, of Connor resting, and Ellie taking the longest break as possible. It was _suppose _to be. But, the extreme sounds of thunderclaps in the sky snapped Ellie's eyes opened, and threw her straight out of bed to take cover underneath the tall bed. Ellie hated rain storms! They took her off-guard, and scared her to death. Ellie _hated _being taken off-guard. Even to something that was nonhuman, yet still entirely lethal to her.

This sort of thing happened before, when she was still in her own era. When a lightening storm brewed, Ellie would curl right next to Joel, and will for the storm to go away. She felt safe in his arms, she could remember, because Joel promised that nothing would happen to her, as long as he was there.

**_Boom!_**

Ellie was startled by another clap in the sky that made her literally jump straight into the air. She covered her ears and tried thinking about her happy place, unsure of what to do, as she took poor refuge under her exposed bed. Her heart was racing abnormally and her body shook in innermost fright, scared down to her socks.

Then, she remembered Connor.

Stumbling through the dark hallways, watching through windows panes at the pitiful trees and landscape being tormented by the wicked storm outside, Ellie jogged to Connor's room, seeing that he was sleeping peacefully. Ellie was confused as to how Connor could sleep so soundly through a storm outside, but, it didn't matter, when she heard another blast in the sky that made her pounce straight into his bedside.

The feeling of a weight dipping the bedside down woke Connor to his senses. He fluttered his eyes opened, and saw that Ellie was right there, curled right underneath the thick layers of blankets, and shaking like a petrified cat that just got dunked in water.

"Ellie." Connor said her name, ignoring her sudden jolt of being startled by his voice. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked.

Ellie made an embarrassed look on her face, looking up at Connor, as she peeked over the blankets. "I just... fucking hate these kinds of storms..." She admitted quietly, feeling almost ridiculous for feeling scared. "They take me off-guard, and..." She then made a bashful look on her face, as she looked up at Connor's face when he made a frown, raising his eyebrow at her. "Can I bunk with you?" She asked in the most bashful tone.

"Of course." Connor nodded his head.

"Thanks." Ellie smiled, settling herself on her side of his bed. She sighed as she laid her head down on the pillow, and hearing Connor yawn as he tried to go back to sleep. She felt bad for waking him up, but, she couldn't help it any way. She just didn't like being alone, and Connor knew that.

Just after ten minutes of laying in bed, Ellie thought the storm had lifted, and had moved.

She was about to make a sigh of relief, when another closer, more fierce blast of thunderbolts in the sky exploded with a _bang_, flashing white lights into the bedroom like canon fire, casting enormous shadows on the walls, that looked like deformed figures of monsters.

Ellie was so startled, she shot herself especially closer to Connor's side and clung to his arm with both her small hands, pressing the side of her head on his bicep. Her eyes closed tightly, and her mind was racing with fear, swearing under her breath every time she could hear the rumbles outside.

Ellie felt silly. She didn't want to bother Connor, just because she was such a baby towards loud sounds. She thought hard on leaving the room, but the sounds of the lightening drumming in the sky and scaring her down to her socks were all that was needed to make her glued to that bed.

Before long, Ellie could hear Connor make a grunt, as he tried moving his arm that Ellie was clinging.

"S-sorry..." Ellie let go of Connor's arm, pulling back some to give him space. "I just got scared."

"Come here." Connor tiredly ordered, lifting up his arm to let Ellie move in closer to hug his side. He turned over to his side, hugging Ellie in his large arms, pulling her closer to his body, covering her exposed ear with his hand. "Do not fret. I am here with you." Connor whispered quietly, as he brushed his fingers over her hair strands behind her ear.

Ellie's ears were heating up, just from the embrace. She has been embraced by Connor multiple times in the past, but, this felt different from the other times. It felt reassuring, warmer, and just safer from the war-like storm outside. She pressed the side of her face against Connor's collarbone as he massaged the side of her head, behind her ear, with his fingertips.

"Mother use to always hold me this way, when I was too scared of storms, as a child. She would sing me something, but, I do not remember what song it was..." Connor softly said, as his words felt reassuring to her. "I got over that, when she passed on, as I went through my teen years bearing through the loud storms. I did not think you were also scared, Ellie." He made a smile as Ellie's slim arms wrapped around his torso. "I thought you did not care for some storms?"

"Uh," Ellie shrugged. "I don't care about rain storms, when it's pouring. But, when it's thundering out... I'm scared shitless." Ellie admitted with a shaky sigh, after a flash of lightening sparked white light into the room once more, as her eyes fell onto the tall shadows once more that danced over the walls, mocking Ellie with her fear. She shook and just closed her eyes, frowning to herself as she rested her head against Connor's upper-chest. Her body was close enough to his to curl into a 'C', wanting nothing more than to cling to him the entire night, until the storm was gone.

"Do not fear the storm. It does not stay forever." Connor assured her with his words.

Ellie pressed her lips together. "What if... it _doesn't_ go away?" She asked in a hoarse voice.

Connor exhaled heavily through his nostrils as he brushed some of Ellie's bangs aside from her face. "Then, it will rain for a million years, and I will still be here for you."

Ellie shifted her eyes to Connor's shoulder, only staring at it to think over his comforting words. "Pssh." Ellie falsely scoffed, trying not to feel so bashful, as she felt her heart flutter with the reassurance of Connor never leaving her side. Something she implored for years. "Well, if it does rain for a million years, get ready to always scooch over for a long time, man." She said, still flushed as she heard Connor make a hearty laugh to that.

Connor held onto her the entire night, as the two laid in the middle of the bed together, embracing each other. Ellie listened closely to Connor's even breathing as he snored softly, while her head was still pressed against his chest, feeling his warm heartbeats. Just how calm his heartbeats were, were enough to make her also relax. Even though Connor's hand over Ellie's exposed ear was not enough to muffle out the thunderclaps, it was also warm against the side of her face. Connor was warm, overall! Perhaps her constant _nannying_ was enough to keep him from becoming ill after all.

As Ellie began to feel her eyes dropping from staying up too long from the storm, she started closing them, feeling as Connor shifted slightly in his sleep to adjust his body and pull her more close to his chest, as he mumbled something unintelligent in his slumber. It sounded like a slurred mumbled in his Mohawk language, but, Ellie wasn't sure.

She just knew that she was about to fall asleep.

**_Just close your eyes. The sun is going down. You'll be all right. No one can hurt you now. Come, morning light. You and I will be safe... and... sound._**

**(- "Safe and Sound", Sam Tsui cover of Taylor Swift's. Why? CUZ I JUST DON'T LIKE SWIFT'S SINGING IN THE SONG. And, I recommend Sam Tsui's cover over her's. Sorries.)**

**I wrote this after a storm brewed up over where I am. Fuck, they scare me shitless, too. Naturally musical abominations, if not lethal sons-of-bitches. Plus, I always thought I hadn't given enough closeness to Connor and Ellie's friendship. So, here you go, CUZ FRIENDSHIP BE MAGICAL.**


	19. EXTRA III: Broken Inside

**A chapter full of trust, emotions, truth and powerful friendship.**

* * *

_To find a way to reach inside,_  
_to wield the hands unfolding time._  
_The higher I am, the better view I find._  
_As I lay down, observe it, all unwind._  
_No doubt or fear, my view is now clear._

* * *

There was a cabin in the woods that was occupied during Winter time. But just by one person.

Whenever it was occupied, Connor would be gone, leaving Ellie to wonder where her favorite Mentor had run off to. She was left in the homestead for a few nights, pondering on Connor's whereabouts, as she would patiently sit in downstairs in his room and genuinely snoop through his personal belongings and read most of the hidden novels of adult genres he had to constantly hide from her. But, still, no Connor. As obedient as she was loyal, Ellie waited for her Mentor to return like the good student she was.

She never thought of going to visit Haytham. She only found it awkward whenever her mind was occupied with one thing, and having to focus on another. She would usually spend time with Achilles, helping more with renovating the manor or going out into town to buy more supplies. Sometimes she would continue her training on swift counter-attacks with swords, profusely sloppy with using an elegant weapon as such. She would always be a brute when fighting, just like Connor. Or, she would waste time with hunting, or jotting down her daily thoughts into her personal journal.

But still, where was Connor?

Her curiosity got the best of her one day, when fate sent out an elk for her to chase and hunt down, bow readied with an arrow hot to launch.

The elk was relentless, as it continued to swiftly and narrowly dodge Ellie's fired arrows and prance off and vanish, only to reappear at the oddest of times. It irritated the little girl, of course, enough to make her agitated and continue her competitive hunt for victor. She was down to three arrows now, wasting the rest on sloppy shots. But, she was completely sure now that she was at an arm's reach to claim the damnedest elk as her own.

Chasing it through the woods felt like hours, but Ellie wasn't giving in. Not after it was practically mocking her with its speed! Ellie relentlessly marched through the piles of thick snow, bow and arrow still readied in her small hands to strike, chasing the bastard elk through the nameless woods she cared less about.

And with a draw back of the arrow, one eye closed to aim perfectly at the runaway elk, Ellie made her shot, and finally met victory.

The arrow pierced straight through the elk's cranium, through the back of its head, and out between its eyes. Ellie made a giddy cheer as the elk lost control of its long legs and started running into trees and tall boulders randomly, while blood oozed out from its punctured wounds and dripped onto the white snow. A minute later, the elk finally dropped, falling dead onto the snow with a last of air extinguishing through its throat.

"Finally." Ellie sighed to herself, marching towards the elk while sheathing the bow around her shoulder. "You're freakin' tough."

As Ellie went to extract the bloodied arrow from the dead elk's cranium, a suddenly blur of something glowing bright blue fluttered by. Ellie blinked, looking quick to her side to see what that was.

And her eyes met with a floating butterfly.

Ellie made a shocked gasp, eyes glowing bright, to the sight of the said butterfly. It was... literally glowing! Glowing a soft hue of blue, deep into the Winter like a beautiful contrast. Its wings fluttered carefully, as if it were being gentle with the wind.

"... Whoa!" Ellie quietly said to herself, as her eyes were fixed on the butterfly. She all but forgotten about the dead elk. "You'll look good in my collection..." Ellie said, as if the butterfly could comprehend her words.

And it must have. Quick as it came, it left in a hurry, through a narrow path between the tall black tree trunks. Ellie quickly pursued the insect, hands reached out, and feet pitter-pattering through the snow, leading her into the depths of the unknown woods.

Through the tall family of trees that led the little hamster of an adventurer through the darkened woods, the glow of the extraordinary butterfly led her out of the dark and back into the light, into a clearing, that was all but snow. Before Ellie knew it, the butterfly had vanished while she was not looking. The girl swore loudly, stamping her foot into the snow as a pout. She scanned the unknown area with her eyes, wondering where the darn insect could have flew off to, when her eyes met with the sight of...

A cabin.

_'Connor is gone again, as every Winter time,'_ Ellie suddenly heard the familiar words of Achilles say to her, within her mind. _'He goes out to the woods every Winter time, residing in a cabin. I wouldn't know what the boy does... I'm too old to follow him.'_

That was enough to make Ellie speed off towards the cabin.

The cabin itself was generic - wooden and standing alone in the woods. A brick chimney spewed black smoke, indicating someone's presence on the inside. Ellie only found it awfully eerie and strange to know that a cabin stood alone in the deepest part of the woods, where there was hardly a sound of nature or any town nearby. Complete silence on a hill. Almost like death.

Approaching the window, Ellie peeked into the uncovered pane, seeing that there was obvious signs of someone's presence. She saw a satchel sitting upon a lone table, opened. She saw a familiar coat hanging by the hook of a coat rack near the active fireplace. It was a long black coat, one that Ellie loved wearing. She let Connor borrow it, knowing how cold it would be as he left the homestead.

And before Ellie could think to mentally react to the coat's existence, a face suddenly jumped up in front of her from behind the window pane.

"AAAHHH!" Ellie screamed bloody-murder, throwing her arms up and falling backwards. Her wail echoed through the woods like a cave, startling the silent group of birds to flock off into the sky. She felt back onto her backside with a heavy thud into the snow. Her eyes weld up in tears, ready to start crying, when she realized who it was that startled her.

"CONNOR!" She screamed with fury.

Yes, it was Connor. The Native Assassin swung open the cabin door, stepping outside halfway to clearly see with wide eyes that it was indeed his doting student. "Ellie?" Connor asked in a confused voice. "What are you doing out here?"

"YOU... YOU!" Ellie scrambled up to her feet quickly, huffing angrily. "YOU FUCKING SCARED ME!"

"Ellie," Connor step out of the cabin doorway fully to approached the flustered girl. "Come inside. It is cold out here."

Inside the cabin, it was just as generic. Nothing special, nothing new. But, to Ellie, it was quite a place, because this was the rumored cabin that was said to be haunted by a phantom of the Winter nights. In this case, it was the robed Assassin named Connor Kenway. Ellie was obviously one of the kids that seriously thought a ghost haunted the cabin. She looked around the cabin, feeling her slender body warm up in the toasted air from the fireplace.

"DUDE, you are the ghost!" Ellie pointed at Connor. "You haunt these woods!"

Connor rolled his eyes, snorting to that. "Yes, I suppose so."

"What're you doing out here, anyways?" Ellie boldly asked, taking a seat at the table, almost tempted to rummage through the opened satchel, but withheld. "Achilles told me that you always come out here during Winter time. He says you do tons of thinking to yourself, which I seriously thought nothing totally new, because you ALWAYS think, and you-"

"Ellie!" Connor quickly stopped her motor-running mouth with a fingertip pressed at her lips. "You're talking too much again."

Ellie scoffed, swatting Connor's hand away. "No! I don't talk a lot..." She made a false pout.

Connor made a faint smile at her, his expression softening. "I had almost forgotten how much you enjoyed talking. It has been almost a week since I have came back to the homestead." He took a second seat at the table, opposing from Ellie's side. "I have done much thinking, yes. Almost... too much."

"Can I hear about it?" Ellie asked with a flutter of her eyes, leaning up against the table with her elbows resting on the wooden surface. She gave Connor a stare, eyes glowing with curiosity and willingness to hear everything. "It's always great to get out some thoughts from your head. Did you know that some folks says that if you store too much information in your head, you start talking to yourself a whole lot, like you're crazy?" Ellie chuckled hard to that. "You're crazy, Connor!"

"Pssh," Connor scoffed now, smirking at Ellie this time. He was about to retort, but then, found that he couldn't. His smirk didn't disappear. His eyes still connected with Ellie's bright green eyes, as he thought on something that astonished him. "... This is strange." Connor finally blinked, shifting his eyes down to the table surface. "A while ago, I felt self-loathing. But, now, speaking to you again, I have all forgotten of what I was so angry about..."

Ellie felt her face lightly heat up with a bashful smile spreading on her face, and her heart fluttering. But then, her smile slightly fell, when she remembered what he just mentioned. "Self-loathing?" She raised an eyebrow at Connor. "What's that all about?" She gave Connor a narrow stare. "Unhealthy for the heart."

Connor raised his eyebrows now. "It is normal. Just ask Haytham." He scoffed coldly.

"Huh?" Ellie furrowed her eyebrows. "Haytham? What about him?"

Connor rolled his eyes. "Oh, nothing. Just the simple fucking fact that he is an old, heartless, self-absorbed, pompous, sadistic, no-good-for-nothing-"

"Connor!" Ellie stopped her Mentor from his hurtful verbiage. "_You're_ talking too much again." She countered mindlessly, as Connor tried to calm down, letting out a heavy sigh, as Ellie waited for a good moment to ask a question. "Did you and Haytham get into another fight?"

With a defeated sigh, Connor nodded softly. "Yes..."

Ellie made an irritated sigh. "You two need to stop doing that!" She raised her voice slightly, attracting Connor's attention. "You two keep fighting like two alley cats wanting the last rat in the pack." She folded her slim arms over her chest, giving Connor a hard stare with her lips pressed firmly together. "And the rat's no good!"

"No, no..." Connor huffed angrily. "... He does not understand."

Ellie made a confused look on her face, still staring at Connor as he explained.

"We were not fighting about whose side is right... We fought about the past. About his disappearance from my childhood. From... Mother." He made another heavy sigh, exhaling from his nostrils as he shook his head lightly, eyes exploring the table surface again to recalculate his buzzing thoughts. "... Whenever I bring her up, Haytham just tries to ignore it. Whenever I want to speak about her, or the past, he just... shuts down."

It was true. Since Ellie's exploration with the duo, Connor and Haytham did nothing but bicker at each other. Ellie would watched from her own point of view at how torn their family relationship was, since the Father and Son barely knew each other. Other than knowing the fact that they were both on opposing sides of the Creed and the Cross, which obviously strained them from wanting to understand each other.

But, hearing about Connor bringing up his deceased Mother made Ellie intrigued. "Haytham won't talk to you about her?" Ellie repeated Connor's words. "Well, have you tried convincing him about your childhood instead?"

"I _tried_, but... I do not know why he is so hard to pry at..." Connor shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Oh..." Ellie quietly nodded.

Again, Connor was speaking the truth. As much as Haytham was a talkative man, there were ALWAYS a few topics he would rather leave out instead of talking about. It, too, confused Ellie, seeing how Haytham was such a guarded man. She never expected it, actually. But when it came down to talking about it, Haytham always gave small hints about the topic, never once wanting to give a full description of what was.

The week Ellie spent with Haytham, while Connor was wrongly imprisoned for no reason, she found that Haytham was quite the secluded type that would push others away with a pretentious attitude that spoke "snob" or, "fucking asshole" all over his face. Ellie was never shoved away from his behavior, though. She was use to those type of adults, being around many of them in her own era. It only drew her closer, as she used the correct words to conduct a smooth path towards Haytham's safe haven called a steel-trap mind. When she reached the goal, she pulled back the teeth of the trap and released Haytham from a mental prison.

Haytham did speak to Ellie about some personal issues. He admitted his fear of failure, his plans of a new adventure to spread the Templar cause, and his sudden affection for Ellie because she was just like his deceased Father. Obviously, Haytham did not love a child in such a _manner_. But, he did begin to care for her well-being, finding it always on the line whenever she went anywhere with Connor on any mishap adventure to stop the Templars and the British Army.

"Dude," Ellie tapped the table surface with two fingertips, snatching Connor's attention again. "If Haytham's so hard to talk to, why even bother?" She saw something shine in Connor's eyes, that almost shone vary. "I mean, if he's going to be like that, then why try?"

Connor felt himself uncomfortable now, with the feeling of frustration prickling up from his back to his neck like a chill. "I want him to understand." He admitted quietly, before swallowing back the words. "I-I want him to know how I feel sometimes. He is my Father, so... so I thought... he would comprehend my emotions..." Connor's lips thinned when he thought back to the biting words Haytham said to him not too long ago. He made a bitter look. "All he cares more is about his own problems. He is just... so self-absorbed and-and... just..."

Ellie was attentively listening to Connor, with ears opened wide and eyes still making contact with his. Still, her emotions stirred with uncertainty, unsure of what Connor would do next with himself. As much as Connor was a strong person, he was just like Haytham - unpredictable.

"Unpredictable?" Ellie found a word for Connor to say. "Haytham's unpredictable?"

"Yes!" Connor squeaked, pointing at the brilliant girl. "That is the word! Unpredictable," He sighed heavily again. "... I did say that I would not trust the man, nor even _like _him, but... but I do want closure." Connor sounded quite unsure when he used the last word, with his eyebrows furrowed together in concentration. "I just... I only figured that he would understand the bottling feelings I had of... losing everything..."

Ellie pressed her lips together firmly, darting her eyes away for a moment to stare at a furnishing at the corner of the cabin. If Haytham wouldn't talk about it...

"Well, do you wanna talk about it now?" Ellie looked back to her Mentor. "With me?"

Quickly, Connor shook his head, gesturing his hands up slightly. "I-I do not want to..." He declined shakily. "... I mean, I do not... want to bore you with the long story..."

Ellie made a smile at Connor. "Could you give me the shortened version then?"

Connor gulped nervously, but silently. His eyes shifted down at the table surface again. "I..." He didn't know how to respond to that question. "... I..."

But Ellie stopped Connor with a careful hand patting over his balled hand on the table. "It's okay." She continued to smile at him reassuringly. "... Maybe your story isn't the type to be shortened, with so much details and all, but... you know, when ever you feel up to talking about it, I'd love to listen."

Her words were so close and dear. Connor's heart - his slow and cold-beating heart - was warming up with desperation. Silently he stared back at Ellie, thinking back and forth on the idea of speaking his isolated mind to her. Could she really understand? Could she, a little girl, completely understand?

The decision was made up, when Connor felt Ellie's hand drag away quietly. He quickly uncharacteristically leeched his hand back out to her's and held onto it for dear life. Of course, this startled Ellie, making her squeak in surprise. She looked back to Connor, her eyes searching for an explanation.

"My Mother was killed in a fire." Connor suddenly started without thinking. "When I was taken away by an adult, I heard Mother screaming... screaming sheer pain and agony, as the building collapsed on top of her burning form. Her scream was... was ear-piercing. Every time I close my eyes and try to relax, I hear the same howling screams ring in my ears like an explosion. It rattles me like a cannon fire rumbling the vessel I manned." Connor's breathing quickened, as his mind jogged back to the childhood nightmare of his Mother's death and her screams that forever burned into him, just like that fire...

"One day, when I first killed a man, I... I felt paralyzed." Connor continued, with his shaky hand still around Ellie's small hand. "Th-The others from my Tribe congratulated me as a sign of becoming a man, but... but I felt like a monster... I-It made me go back to when my friends were almost killed in that fire. The one that... that Charles Lee did... When I looked at myself in the water's reflection, I thought I was becoming just as sadistic and cruel as he." Connor shook his head once, as if he were trying to shake out the threats and words of his nightmarish teen-hood. "My People told me it was okay. It was okay t-to kill..."

"To keep me safe from the monsters that would hurt me."

With those words, Ellie's mind found the hidden cause of Connor's problem.

In her own mind, she could only conclude that Connor was actually a deformed mess on the inside. His mind was in shambles, after being exposed to so much violence. He was slowly becoming something he was always scared of being. No, not like his Father. But, something more.

Insane.

"I just want to speak to Haytham about it..." Connor quietly said in a strangled voice. "... I want someone to understand. Someone that would also know..."

"I do." Ellie squeezed Connor's hand.

"No, you do not." Connor quickly drew back his hand. "You do not understand."

"Yes, I do!" Ellie defended herself. "I understand what it's like to feel that way. I know it's so freaking hard to kill someone. To think that it's a way of fucking life..." Ellie looked back to Connor, but saw that his deadpanned expression hadn't changed. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"Of course I do." Connor quickly answered. "I just do not think you understand the real depths of... of what was!"

Ellie became silently furious with Connor, as he continued to explain his reasoning.

"After all the good reasons to kill a man, I was trained to do more slaughtering of the pigs that killed my old self. For a good cause, they said. For the good of mankind to be rid of the ones that would take away everything we believed in, they added!" Then, Connor slammed his balled fists down onto the table, hard enough to make it rattle and the satchel fall over onto the floor. "HOW MANY MORE MUST I KILL TO SAVE MYSELF?!"

He screamed bloody-murder, suddenly shooting up from his chair and grabbing at the side of the table to toss it aside. Blindly, he lurched forward and grabbed Ellie. The girl made a horrified yelp, feeling hands shoot down to her slim neck, and wrap around her throat with a bruising vice. Ellie let out a strangled choke, looking up to Connor's darkened eyes with desperation for him to stop. Her hands clawed at his gloved hands, feeling his fingers only tighten more.

"Not one man... Not even ten men... not even a hundred... could assuage me!" Connor snarled down at the helpless child through baring teeth. "No one will understand. Not leaders. Not kings. Not Father. Not even the silence!"

Ellie was choking in the hands of her beloved Mentor. But, she wouldn't think of unsheathing her hidden switchblade to strike at Connor. She couldn't. "C-Connor-!" Ellie croaked, feeling her Mentor's thumbs pressed firmly at her pulse-spots. "... If killing me will save you from all the bullshit, then... th-then go ahead!" She hissed through gritted teeth, eyes still wide to look back at him with a blurred vision. "M-Maybe you're a fragile person. Maybe even... forgetful sometimes. N-No one remembers you, because you want your space..._ I get it_! I really do!" The tightening pain of Connor's hands clamped around her neck made her finally burst with hot tears in her eyes, that fell down her cheeks.

"But you're a good man. I can see that..."

Connor hear those words, reaching to his ears, as it made him quickly loosen his grip around her neck. He snatched back his hands, releasing her throat. Ellie gasped out, inhaling gulps of air back into her closed lungs. More tears poured down her cheeks, as she put her hands over her pained throat.

Standing there now, looking down at his hands with horror. "... Wh-What... what did I..." He tried asking himself, or Ellie, what just happened. "Did I almost... kill...?"

But Ellie wouldn't let him finish. "C-Connor," Ellie coughed. "Look at this." Reluctantly, Ellie grabbed at her long sleeve and pulled it up, exposing her infected arm. "This is all I'm good for. A cure, and that's it. Saving mankind from whatever fucked-up mayhem, but that's all I'm known for. I'm just a walking cure for humanity, just as everyone else sees you as. Fuck, even my old Mentor Joel once thought that was all I'm good for! But," She pointed at herself, "when I look at myself in the mirror, looking back at a reflection of me, I know that I'm still just as important as anyone else!"

She then pointed at Connor. "Others see you as just as the answer to save America, but nothing else. Damn, even Haytham just sees you as that! All that people see is a man that wants to make a difference, but always doubt him, EVEN THOUGH they are suppose to support him for his cause!" She stamped her foot hard onto the wooden floor. "Goddammit Connor, you are only degrading yourself because you're so consumed with everyone else and what they think about you. You never think for yourself... like... like me!

"But, no matter what, I still look at myself in the mirror, and see a person. A living, breathing, existing human being, that is bottled with emotions I'm too afraid to even admit." Ellie shook her head, feeling new tears weld up in her eyes, but she dared not to shed them. "Connor, you'll never be a monster. No matter what the other fuckers say about you. You shouldn't give a fuck about the cruel." She looked back to her broken Mentor with hope in her eyes, as her heart pounded at her chest. "Even though you keep all those emotions to yourself... Have you ever... have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror, and told yourself that...

You are the _most important person_ in this world?"

That was all it took, to make Connor grit his teeth hard to where they almost crackled. He pulled his hood over his head, unable to contain it any longer. Without warning, Connor burst out crying, falling straight down to his heavy and weak knees, with his hands still folded over his covered-head. His upper-body bowed forward, shaking and trembling as he let it out. Let it all out. Everything.

He cried so hard, screamed and wailed at the air sometimes. He kept his face hidden from the world, as he continued to cry hard. But then, out of a glimmer of courage, he threw off his hood and exposed his teary eyes and fallen expression of everything he hid behind. The bottle had finally become to full, and exploded with everything that he held within for too long, inside an aching heart that was made of thin glass. When it burst, it exposed the real Connor. The one that he thought died eons ago.

Ellie knew Connor was strong. But now, seeing as what he was, it only proved how courageous he was.

"Connor," Ellie wanted to step forward and comfort him, but was unsure of when to do so. She smiled at him, with her tears not shedding. She didn't want to cry. This was Connor's moment to be himself. His time. "I'm very proud of you right now. I mean - seriously fucking proud."

"Ellie," Connor reached out his hands to her.

The girl got the message through her head. She approached Connor with her arms out to embrace him. And they held each other. Connor held the girl close to himself, still on his knees as he buried his face onto her flat stomach. Ellie remained standing, holding him close as well.

"When you're hit, you bleed. When you speak, you'll make a mistake. When you smile, I'll notice it. Connor, you're still human. Look at how much emotions you still have. You think you're this cold and unfeeling man behind the crowd, but you are still just as important. Behind the hood, I still see you. When you cry now, I know that you are much more stronger than who you really are. I think you're an incredible person, dude."

"E-Ellie," Connor breathed out, and looked to Ellie. "Thank you so much."

"Oh, pssh," Ellie waved a dismissive hand. "Come on! I did nothing."

"No... you really did. You... you really did..."

This little mature, witty, and wise-cracking girl was the most amazing person in the world.

* * *

"Father..." Connor suddenly started, putting his hands together to nervously look to Haytham.

Haytham stopped on his trek, looking back to his Son. "What is it, Connor?" Haytham asked in annoyance, eyebrows furrowed. "We're wasting time with all those petty talks. We've more information to pry from the Red Coats." He sounded prepared to turn and march off without Connor, but, perhaps curiosity kept him standing there to wait and hear what Connor wanted to say.

A moment of staring in Haytham's eyes, and Connor made a heavy sigh, shifting his weight where he stood. "I mean..." He quickly looked back to Haytham after briefly looking away, "I am sorry."

"... Huh?" Haytham blinked, almost taken aback. "What're you on about, boy?"

_It's not your fault Haytham's this way._

Connor could remember his student's words ring through his ears.

_It's not your fault Haytham's so vary. You already tried to get him to talk about the past, but he won't pry. But, just remember, that even though Haytham won't admit to anything..._

"I understand your silence." Connor finally answered his Father, dropping his arms back down to his sides. "I understand you want your space and silence... I get it." He nodded lightly, speaking as smoothly as he could to Haytham. "I did not mean to pry before, when we fought... But... but I do want you to know that I am here for you. Whatever the problem, you may speak to me about it. N-Not now, though. Just... whenever you feel prepared to talk, I will listen." He lightly smiled up to his Father.

Haytham's eyebrows rose. Was this really Connor he was speaking to? The one that was once so sassy and cold-hearted towards him with awful comments? Haytham studied Connor's eyes for a moment, as if he were in search of the old Son. But, something else was there. He just couldn't tell what...

"Well," Haytham cleared his throat. "... Thank you." He darted his eyes away as he admitted his words with mental defeat.

But it made Connor all the more joyful on the inside. Not to the fact that he caught his Father off-guard, but to the fact that Haytham would know...

_... He'll know that you'll be there for him._

* * *

**GAWW, I'VE BEEN DYING TO WRITE ANOTHER EXTRA. YOU HAVE NO CLUE.**

**A chapter where I felt that Connor should be noticed more - not for his brutish combat and blank expression - but for everything that is bottled inside of him. I saw a fanart of Connor crying to himself, and felt it all soak in. Connor is seriously a broken person on the inside, that is so good at hiding it. He doesn't want anyone to understand, even though he is in desperate need to let it all out. To find solace in the world. Connor is truly the greatest character that is first to show so much hidden inside.**

**The song at the top of the page is "Unfolding Time" by Broken Iris. It reminded me of Connor.**


End file.
